I swear, we are not as crazy as this story makes us out to be.
So this past summer, while on vacation, we bought a house. We were in the middle of a cross country road trip headed from California to Ohio and back, with a stop in Colorado… all in two and a half weeks. At 9:30 AM on a Wednesday in Durango, CO, we toured the home, hit the road to Ohio by 10 AM, and had submitted an offer somewhere in Kansas before our realtors office closed by 5 PM!
Again, I swear, we are not as crazy as this story makes us out to be.
Now here is the full story, along with what we have learned along the way about home ownership as a travel PT.
Our decision to jump into home ownership as travel PTs was not one made in haste. We have long wanted to make this big decision for three reasons.
One, we love the city of Durango! Ever since rolling into town for a bike race while still in PT school we have wanted to own a home there. The mountains, the river, the trails, the historic downtown… ahhh!
Two, and most importantly, we wanted to lay down some deeper roots amongst the incredible community that we have found there. Friendships that have not just survived but thrived during our half decade away provides a strong pull to return more permanently to the town we love.
And Three, at some point we would like have an income property, and Durango, CO has a thriving rental market. We have listened to story after story on the ChooseFi Podcast about couples that “house hacked” their way to financial independence by cutting their housing costs via renting a room or an apartment in their home. Plus, with elderly parents, years down the road the unit could serve as a more long-term dwelling for them.
Three years ago we began talking with a realtor recommended by a friend in town who had recently had a wonderful experience. We carefully compiled our house “wish list:”
- Close to downtown
- 3+ BR 2+BA
- Some sort of income potential
- Evergreen value
Taking these criteria we began scouring Zillow for properties that fit as close as possible. One thing we quickly realized was how little our budget could actually buy us in a town as desirable as Durango. For example, our realtor found a home in the downtown area, bike-able to everything we could possibly want, that was right at our max budget. Upon walking into the tiny dwelling we were informed that the home is affectionately referred to as a “scrapper” in Durango real estate lingo. As in, you need to scrape it off of the lot and start over…
We also discovered that the City of Durango had limited the number of short term rentals, and some subdivisions had banned them all together. This too put a big damper on our plans because we were hoping to use short term rental sites like AirBNB and VRBO to make a little side income while we kept working as travel PTs.
So what did we do…
Using this new knowledge we had to further narrow our search. We began looking for what I would refer to my realtor as “non-traditional” properties. These are properties that might have dual zoning – business zoning and residential zoning all on the same property, or properties that are listed on multiple lots, fixer-uppers, and/or even auction properties.
We ended up finding homes in each of these pools over the three years of searching. The dual zoned property was likely our best find but it was early in our search so we passed on it before we knew what a great value it really was without ever making an offer. We also found an auction property that was literally HALF of our budget! But, we ended up insisting on touring it before we placed an offer and missed the bidding deadline by a matter of days. It sold for $10K less than we were going to offer.
As the years clicked by our favorites list on Zillow constantly was updated and refreshed. We noticed that often times properties would be listed $50K more than they actually would be sold for, so we expanded our budget search (one of the many criteria you can search for on Zillow) to include properties as much as $100K outside of our comfort zone.
That brings us to this past summer
The home we eventually bought was initially listed in March 2018 for exactly $100K more than we had budgeted for. Then in May or June it was dropped by $50K… still too steep for us but we definitely took notice. It stayed at this price for most of the summer. 3-4 beds, 2 1/2 bath, 11 wooded acres in the tall Ponderosa Pines, city water (access to water is a real struggle in the Southwestern US), and only 10min outside of town. However, it clearly needed some updating (more on that later). August arrived and our trip from California to Ohio began. We spent 3 days in Durango visiting friends and planned on heading East to see some family without ever thinking about looking at homes. Then we opened Zillow… The home had dropped another $50K the day before we were to leave town. We knew we at least had to take a look.
We scrambled to get our realtors butt in gear and were able to see the home right before we had to hit the long road on towards Ohio. After seeing the house we did 5-6 hrs of soul searching and gut checking as we deliberated back and forth on what would become the biggest financial decision of our lives while on the long road East.
Eventually we decided to take the leap!
Given that the price was reduced so significantly the owners had three offers sight unseen, but only one was in before we submitted our offer – which was $12K below asking (because why not?). By the end of the week they had close to ten offers of asking price or more!
How did we end up with the home?
Just as we teach in our course, we made sure we stood out amongst the droves of offers that the owners were receiving. While speeding down the highway towards Kansas I quickly typed an introductory letter to be submitted to the owners along with our offer. I explained who we are, our family goals, why we love the house, and took extra time to paint the picture of how we would continue the legacy of raising an outdoor-centric family in the home (I already knew that the prior owner was an avid outdoorsman and had raised 3 kids in the home with his wife). To tie a bow on it I placed a super cute photo of our whole family at the top so it would be the first thing they saw when they went to read it. Sure enough it worked! While they didn’t capitulate totally to our lower offer, they are not stupid after all, they were impressed by us enough to request that we make a counter offer because they wanted to at least give us a chance to make a competitive bid. In the end we closed for just shy of their full asking price. *All while they had other offers at or above full price!*
The Home
Built in 1979 by the owners, by hand, the house is just over 3,000 sq ft, though only 1,800 sq ft or so is finished (there is a massive unfinished basement that is already plumbed for a bathroom and kitchen should we choose to build one). 2 beds and 1 bath on the main level, and a super quirky master bedroom and bath upstairs (with killer pink carpeting in both!). The living room has a huge local rock fireplace and more knotty pine that you can imagine.
So why did we buy this house?
What jumped out to use about this home is that it hit every one of our “wish list” criteria. 10 min from town, obviously big enough, and with the unfinished basement there is potential for creating an in-law suite down there as it has its own separate entrance. Plus, there is a detached garage that was originally a log cabin in which the prior owners lived while building the main house. That means that it too is fully plumbed and has the potential for income generation as above the garage is a studio sized space that is just itching for some remodeling.
But here is the kicker!.. Actually 2!
- It is located in a rather desirable subdivision, but because it was built so long ago it has been grandfathered OUT of all of the short term rental rules.
- The 11 acres is actually 2 lots of 7 and 4 acres apiece. In an area that is growing as quickly as Durango is, open land close to town can sell at a premium ($100-180K for an empty 4acre lot like ours). While this is not our intention, should there come a time where we are strapped for cash or no longer enjoy the allure of our 11 acre wood, it will serve as a hefty boost in potential income if we did decide to sell.
How we will use this home as we continue to travel
One of the most common questions we get is “how will you manage your home while you travel?” The answer is quite simple. Just the same as we did when we were renting. Tax wise there is no change in our status now as compared to when we were renting in Colorado, so it all gets filed the same as before. Now, once we start renting it out there will be some changes. First, we will have to keep a living area open to us at all times to meet our perception of the tax requirements. And we will have to claim the rent we collect as income. But that is about it.
As far as the management of the physical house its self goes we will have to search for either a superstar maid or a property manager to look after it while we are gone. Already this winter, since we are on contract in California still, I have had to pay a pretty penny to have our 80yrd driveway plowed and our ROOF shoveled so it wouldn’t cave in!
Current Status
As for now we are in remodel mode. Fixing the broken and refreshing the outdated. Our grand scheme is to be ready for renters come Fall 2019. Stay tuned for how to (and not to) oversee home renovations from 1,400 miles away!
By. Stephen Stockhausen
