When is the best time to buy real estate? What is the current market condition? Should buyer’s decisions be influenced by news of a recession?
In this episode, Chad Rocke, fellow FI Team member and lead agent, joins Ian to answer these questions and more! From his boots-on-the-ground perspective, Chad walks us through the latest news in the real estate market and shares tips on how we can still secure deals despite the shift in market trends.
First-time home-buyers and fairly new real-estate investors will not want to miss this episode. Listen and learn some tips on how anyone can successfully navigate the ever-changing landscape of real-estate.
PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
[02:28] Chad Recaps the End of 2022 Market Condition
[03:57] The Start of the Transition: Chad Sees Signs of a Shift in the Market
[05:38] What Caused the Change? Chad Gets Into the Buyers’ Mindset
[08:59] Chad Compares His January 2023 Offers and His December 2022 Offers
[15:11] How Can Buyers Maximize the Current Situation? Chad Shares Some Advice
[21:12] What Buyers Can Prepare to Speed up the Process
[24:52] A Major Concern for Buyers and Buyers’ Agents: Will It Appraise?
[30:49] Chad’s Crystal Ball Reflections for the Next Few Months
Resources:
Keep in touch! Follow Ian Jimeno and Chad Rocke on social media for more real estate with a dash of lifestyle goodness.
Chad Rocke:
The FI Team:
Ian Jimeno:
When is the best time to buy real estate? What is the current market condition? Should buyer’s decisions be influenced by news of a recession?
In this episode, Chad Rocke, fellow FI Team member and lead agent, joins Ian to answer these questions and more! From his boots-on-the-ground perspective, Chad walks us through the latest news in the real estate market and shares tips on how we can still secure deals despite the shift in market trends.
First-time home-buyers and fairly new real-estate investors will not want to miss this episode. Listen and learn some tips on how anyone can successfully navigate the ever-changing landscape of real-estate.
PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
[02:28] Chad Recaps the End of 2022 Market Condition
[03:57] The Start of the Transition: Chad Sees Signs of a Shift in the Market
[05:38] What Caused the Change? Chad Gets Into the Buyers’ Mindset
[08:59] Chad Compares His January 2023 Offers and His December 2022 Offers
[15:11] How Can Buyers Maximize the Current Situation? Chad Shares Some Advice
[21:12] What Buyers Can Prepare to Speed up the Process
[24:52] A Major Concern for Buyers and Buyers’ Agents: Will It Appraise?
[30:49] Chad’s Crystal Ball Reflections for the Next Few Months
Resources:
Keep in touch! Follow Ian Jimeno and Chad Rocke on social media for more real estate with a dash of lifestyle goodness.
Chad Rocke:
The FI Team:
Ian Jimeno:
Chad: Hey. What's up, everybody? This is Chad Rocke with the FI Team here in Denver. Today we are hosting the Invest in Denver Podcast with my buddy, colleague, fellow real estate agent, Ian.
Ian: Nice.
Chad: We're going to talk about — I don't know if you call it an emergency podcast. But I would say, we want to get this out there and talk market conditions. Ian and I are seeing a change, and so we want to get this — we are the boots on the ground. We are both out doing five, ten showings the past two days talking to agents, talking to buyers, running into other buyers. And so, we wanted to get this out here as quickly as possible and just share our boots-on-the-ground opinion of maybe a shift in the market here.
Ian: Yeah, that's huge, man, especially with me being an agent for maybe about a year and a half now, going from a hot seller's market from 2022, late 2021, all the way until maybe about July or August of 2022 where interest rates were increasing so fast. All of the buyers were like, whoa, let's pump the breaks a little bit. Maybe we'll just wait on the showings, wait on getting pre-approved, and see how much of our buying power is still there, especially when we're still looking. Then here we are now where buyers are creeping out of the hobbit knoll or whatever you might want to call it, the shire, out of their homes. They're like, "Okay. I guess, it's not too scary out here anymore."
Now they're seeing that the buying power is staying consistent now with mortgage rates staying around that 6.5%, 7%, or whatever that might be if you're owner-occupied or an investment loan. Then they can work out the numbers as the months go by. With that being said, Chad, thank you so much for hanging out, man. There's so much to catch up on. But we'll make it pretty quick here.
I know there's a lot to catch up on based on what we're even seeing the past couple of weekends, even a couple of weeks ago when you first saw that, hey, there's some change in the market going on right now. Because a lot of the buyers were sort of holding back, like I mentioned earlier. A lot of sellers were not exactly putting more houses or more inventory on the market. Nowadays, I guess I'm not seeing too much more inventory, but the buyers are coming out of the woodworks.
Let me start off this question with a couple of weeks ago were like. Where did you start to see that transition? At what point where you had that flick of the switch of like, okay, something interesting is going on here?
Chad: Great question. Yeah, I guess, just to your point leading up to that of the last, like you said, July of last year, interest rates just went through the roof basically overnight. There's this sticker shock of rates worth three. Now they're seven. My payment was 1,800. Now it's 3,800. It's like, whoa, I can't afford this. Everybody just froze.
It was all the way up in — through December, I saw a couple of my buyers pick up. We got out there. I got a couple under contract, but it was under asking. The last one, I would say, was December 15 or so. I got one under contract — $20,000 of seller concessions. It appraised $30,000 above what our contract price is. The dude, he's living the dream right there. All closing costs covered, appraised amazingly. That was December 15. We don't close until January 31. That time period where things were slow, under asking, could ask for the world, ask for the concessions.
I would say January, just two weeks ago like the first week of January, we had some people. Holidays is over. They want to get out there and start looking at houses. I'm like, yeah, let's do it. One particular buyer of mine, she texted me on Monday, sent me three houses. I'm like, yeah, let's go see these this weekend, Thursday or Friday. I went to book them on Tuesday. One is pending. One, as agents, we can pull up the time slot, the viewings. The last six months, there was no problem getting showings. Anytime you wanted, there was no other showings.
In contrast, like you were saying, 12 months ago, 18 months ago, you'd have to fight for these time slots. Sometimes you couldn't even see it. Then it went to zero. Then I went to book this one last two weeks ago. I saw four other showings in the same day. It's like, oh, this is interesting. I haven't seen this in a while, and then the one pending. Really, to answer your question, it really was like two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, it was like, something seems to be shifting here.
Ian: Why do you think now? Not much has changed over the past couple of months with interest rates, or maybe even inventory. But it seems like the buyers are seeing something that is not very evident. Maybe it's something personal versus any other time that based on market stats, inventory, interest rates, things like that. But it seems like everyone's on some sort of roll here. You know what I mean? Is there anything you can put your finger on that might identify like, okay, this is the reason why people are starting to look into buying again?
Chad: Yeah, my two cents on it — I don't think there's any data to necessarily back this up. But just my boots on the ground, internal philosophy on it is a couple of things. One, holidays. December is always the slowest month. People are traveling. The agents are traveling. Buyers are traveling. Those last two weeks, no one is around. Maybe it's a New Year's resolution to buy a house this year. But December is just slow in general. So, get back and start looking back in town. That's one thing.
Another thing is rates are creeping down. I think it was four weeks in a row. They were down four or five weeks in a row. They were down slightly, nothing major. Rates are coming down. The other thing is this, that sticker shock of the three to seven. That's starting to settle in here. People are realizing this is the reality. Rates are five to six and a half. That's where it's going to be.
So, what's the alternative? Sit and wait for rates to maybe come down. Let's continue to rent, throw away $3,200 a month. I had a conversation yesterday with a buyer. She was like, "I am so sick of paying $3,000 a month for rent. There's rumors — I know the rumors are true — that they're going to raise the rent come July." She's like, "I am not doing that again." That's her motivation of like, enough is enough.
Yeah, I think rate is creeping down. Reality setting in. Holidays are behind us. It seems to be what my buyers are in that. Some of them or one of them moving here, he was just waiting for some confirmation from a job. Now he just got the confirmation balls rolling forward. Yeah, I think that's what leads into it.
Ian: Yeah, I think so, too, especially with December being pretty slow for me as well. Not too many showings going on. But nowadays, I had a pretty packed day with showings. Not only mine but helping out other agents as well. Their buyers are looking much more often and in various different places as well.
I guess, going into a little bit more of context for the audience here. Right now, we're recording this January 22. Yesterday was Saturday, so we both had full days and a bunch of other FI Team agents have had full days of showings on the 21st, the day before. By the time that this episode comes out on Friday, which I believe is the 27th, you guys are getting the up-to-date, cutting edge information that we're seeing with boots on the ground. I'm sure not much is going to be changing from here until Friday. But who knows? Who knows at this point?
With your experience the past weekend, I know you had a busy one. I can go into my details as well. What are you seeing with the past couple of showings? Maybe you saw some more or, I guess, maybe tighter scheduling because more people are booking the showings. What are your offers looking like right now compared to even three weeks ago or even last year?
Chad: Let me take one step back just last weekend, what I saw. Last weekend was the first. Leading up into January — like I was saying, no offers, under asking, asking for the world — two weeks ago, I went to offer on a house. It was in the Sherwood area. It was listed 533. It was a nice house. It was a non-conforming duplex. One upstairs, one downstair — two-bed, one bath up; two-bed, one bath down; separate kitchen; separate entrance. What we look for. That was listed on a Monday. It was under contract on Wednesday 31,000 over asking. That is part of it too, of this light switch of like, okay, it's been a while since I've seen over asking, let alone 30,000 over asking. 530 is not price ridiculous yet. It seems right and above, but it wasn't like it was listed at 450 and someone went 500. It was priced right. It was 31k over asking. That was last weekend.
This weekend, there's a house again in the Welby neighborhood, which is just east of the Sherwood area. Great house. Probably listed low, 475 range. New everything. It was listed on Monday. It went under contract Tuesday. Again, right away. It was terminated because I think they got cold feet or something happened. Some weird situation happened. They terminated it. It went back to market. He held two open houses this weekend. They have four offers in as of right now. Hopefully, we can lock that one up. But just that — getting more offers, it's over asking, significantly over asking.
A couple other houses I saw. One was a very interesting one. This may or may not apply to a lot of the listeners. It was a disgusting hoarder house. It was so bad. It was a very deceiving listing. The listing agents pulled these Photoshopped images and said the clutter has been removed for viewing purposes. It's something like that. I was like, okay. It's interesting. That's a very, very big understatement when you say clutter. We're talking bad hoarder house. It was listed 510. We went in at 430 because it was bad. We got beat out at the last second by a cash offer that was more than 430. Not necessarily or exactly what we're talking about here but just another story of the weekend. That's what I saw.
Ian: That buyer in particular with the interest in the hoarder house, were they flippers, investors? What were they trying to do with the property?
Chad: Yeah, it was going to be a primary. He is an experienced investor. He's actually moving here from out of state and looking to buy it. He's from here. So, he's looking to buy his next house. Funny enough, I closed on a house one block over in December. That one closed at 620. We're going to get this at 430. So, he just saw the potential in it.
Ian: Yeah, big bummer. Those cash offers are coming back in, too. I haven't seen that in a long time as well. It's just so interesting how that can change so quick. People are coming to the realization. Going back to the story of your client that's like, "I don't want to live in a place that's owned by someone else and getting rent raised on me," it's like, whose mortgage are you going to pay, yours or someone else's? At a certain point, you have to have that realization and really come to terms with, okay, this is probably the best time to do it before things start heating up again — literally and figuratively — with the market and summertime approaching. Because during the wintertime, if it's anything from last year or like last year with myself, it was a little bit slower. Although once March hit, I hit the ground running at that point.
With that being said, too, we're interested in two properties. One is over in Aurora. It's a five-bed, two-bath, but the rehab work was not the best. Main floor has this open floor plan, has three bed, one bath upstairs, two one downstairs. Funny, it'll be a little bit weird that we saw in the basement, that on the baseboards, there were some water leaks or at least damage, if you will. Not necessarily damage, but I saw staining on the baseboards. Then I don't know. Some minor details about it.
But when I was booking the showing for it, there was a lot of people going into it. When I called the listing agent after we got out or after the showing for feedback and things like that, he said that, with this house that has been on the market for the past 90 days, he now has two offers in. That's crazy to me. I don't know why now versus any other time, which we've explained already. It could be the winter. It could be a bunch of other things, being concerned with what the interest rates are right now.
Then the other place was over in Sherwood. We were talking about this before we pressed record, where it was closer to this water tower. Bunch of solar panels, and it has that same non-conforming duplex where you have that separate entrance, garage going into the basements. Really clutch. My client likes both of them. He's a hungry guy. He wants to get into it and try to buy it as soon as possible.
For those buyers that are on the fence now, and now that they're hearing this story, Chad, what do you suggest for those potential buyers to really push them to like, hey, this is a good time to go? If we're seeing this peak up now in the middle of January, imagine what it's going to be like in March. Is there anything that you would like to impose as far as information just to push them a little bit further?
Chad: Yeah, that was the exact, same conversation I had earlier today with a buyer. She's going to just pump the brakes, just a hair to get ducks in a row. I was like, yeah, I understand that similar expenses on a previous house. It was like, I get it. Maybe we wait a week or two. But that's exactly the thing I saw. If we're seeing this in January 22, mid to late January, I'm a little nervous about March. If we're seeing 30k over — this other one is 35k over that I offered on — if we're seeing that in January and if rates tick down, if they continue to tick down, which I think they could come down a little bit and settle in like upper five, sixes range where they're like six quarters, six and a half right now, that's just going to intensify this even more.
To answer your question, one thing is, you got to jump on it fast. It's even a little bit different right now. Before, when it was crazy, crazy, things would come on the market Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Agents know they're going to get 5, 10, 15 offers in. The offer deadline is Sunday night, Monday morning. So, you know that, alright, this is what's going to happen.
What I am seeing now is — I wanted to make this point, too — right now, sellers and agents may not know this shift is going on. Some agents only work with sellers. They know what happened three months ago, and they're preparing. This could take a while. We need to price it aggressively. I've seen that, too. This one, it was priced low, I think, maybe because he's thinking two, three-months-ago mindset, not two-weeks-ago mindset. So, you can jump on these deals right now. So, now things are going to — they're worried they're not going to get any other offers, so they just take it.
It will go to market on Monday. They'll get an offer on Tuesday. "Oh, wow. We got an offer. We can't wait till the weekend. We might not get any more offers. Boom. Let's take it." It's gone on Tuesday. You don't even get a chance. You got to be on top of it. It's what I'm seeing. If it comes out on Monday morning, text your agent. Let's go see this. It popped up. You go see it Monday, go see it Tuesday morning. Because it could be gone. If it's priced right, it'll be gone. That's one thing.
I guess the other two is just, there's always the refinance aspect of it. I hate to like, if my numbers don't work where they're at now, I don't want to bank on a refi. But there's a better chance of rates coming down at six and a half than there is at rates when they're at three. At three, rates are going to come down. You're locked in. You'll feel better about it, but you don't want to bank on that. So, if it's closed right now, you're going to get that appreciation. You're going to get the principal pay down, especially if you're house hacking and someone else is paying it down for you.
What's the alternative? Is it continuing to rent? Well, we know that's not a good option, really, in any scenario. Maybe you're not cash flowing $1,000 like you were last year or two years ago. But maybe you're paying $500 instead of paying $2,000 in rent. So, it's still a massive savings. The other beautiful thing about real estate is that your mortgage either stays the same or your refi goes down. Rents always go up. Over the long term, rents go up. Maybe today you're making nothing, you're flat. But five years from now, you refi-ed, rents go up. Now you're making money.
Thinking your picture, I think just now is still a great time. I had this conversation this morning, too. It kind of sucks. We were talking about numbers. Okay. Closing costs will be covered. Well, that's going to go now. Those people that wait it, you just lost eight grand. Not all the time. There's still those deals out there. But the last four months, I would say, 90% guarantee you can get your closing costs covered. Today? Hit or miss. I don't know.
Ian: That's another thing that I'm worried about, too, especially with writing an offer on this place. This is our first time doing tours, doing showings with my buyer that was out with me yesterday. We want to move quick, too. That's the biggest concern here: how soon can we turn this over without the listing agent realizing that, hey, we're making a good deal out of this for us at this time in the market with this switch going on right now of closing costs now taken care of, egress windows are no longer a part of the normal equation here. Because I was almost banking on it the past six months. Here we are now where that conversation might not happen, or the negotiations just might not turn it in our favor all the time.
I want to go back to what you were mentioning, of your answer to those people that are on the fence in this time in the market of being on top of it. Being on top of it, I know you mentioned a glimpse of it where it's like, hey, if it's on the market and it fits all your criteria — at least on the photos, on the descriptions, the specs, and things like that — go see it. Is there anything else that the buyer should be prepared for prior to going to see that place or maybe right after it? Is there anything else that they can see or be more prepared to be "on top of it"?
Chad: Yeah, I think you're teeing me up for a conversation we had before we started, of making sure you're pre-qualified. Is that what you're leading to?
Ian: One of them, yeah. Sure.
Chad: Yeah, I ran into this, too. People are always eager. They want to get out there. Let's go start seeing them. We're growing. Then it's like, where do we actually get the down payment from? Are we ready to go? That happens. Everybody goes through it. It's part of the journey. I never get mad about that. But it's like, what did we just do the last two weekends if you're not — we found the house, right? Let's go.
I guess, it's frustrating from the buyer's perspective, too. Like, gosh, I had all the ducks in a row. They were ready. Just make sure finances are in order. Where is that down payment coming from? If there are some other investors you're partnering up, make sure everybody's aligned. Then having a conversation with the lender as well and giving — if 500, this is what my principal interest, taxes, insurance payment is going to be at 600. This is what it's going to be. Just be ready to throw these numbers into your calculator, in your analysis. This is my AirDNA, or this is my rent-by-the-room number at 600. Just having those figures from a lender perspective, like 600 here, 550 here, 500 here. Break it all down. You can pull out your one sheeter when you're looking at houses. You mentally run through the numbers, the pre-qualification, where the money is coming from, any partnership agreements. Everyone's on the same page.
Obviously, strategy is going to play into it. If you want to, for sure, short-term rent, and you don't want it to have to be your primary residence, there are certain areas of Denver in the metro area where you need to focus on. It's the Northglenn, Wheat Ridge, Arvada, unincorporated Adams County, Westminster. Those five places are, a lot of times, my focus for short-term rentals that don't have to be your primary. If that's the buyer's goal, then we need to focus on those areas.
If they're open to mid-term rentals, long-term rentals, rent by room, like it could go short-term rental but they don't have to, well, that's going to open us up Aurora in Denver and Lakewood. I guess, just knowing that criteria. I don't think you have to have like I, for sure, I'm going to do this plan. You got to be a little bit nimble. If the short-term rental doesn't work out or you don't like it, you can switch to mid-term rental, rent by room. Just knowing what areas you want to focus on, what strategy, in general, it's going to help steer that criteria search of where you're looking at houses. You don't want to be looking in Denver, Lakewood if you, for sure, want to short-term rent.
Ian: Yeah, 100%, man. Part of that scare of putting in offers at, let's say, maybe going over asking and if we're going into that territory now, it's something to talk about. I know with going into 2022, a lot of people were going in 50k, 70k, even 100k over asking price. The biggest concern during that time was, will it appraise?
Nowadays, I'm sort of keeping that in the back in my mind. The previous six months, not so much because I was pretty confident. Especially with all those comps that were 50k to 100k over asking, I was able to appraise very easily. Meaning, it appraised at my offer price or above. But as of right now, that conversation is happening again. It's like, will it appraise? Are you seeing that right now with those that you're going under contract with? How has it been the past month or two?
Chad: Yeah, I guess just in general, my appraisal opinion, I've really had — it's like 95% have always appraised no matter what the scenario is, which is crazy. One quick example: the highest height of last year — March, April, May — it was listed 560. Closest comps were 555, 560 range. We had to go all the way up to 611, 612 and got it with a full appraisal gap using the strategy with that. But I was not confident at all.
I actually met the appraiser there. From a buyer's side, you usually don't meet the appraiser there. But I was like, I got to do everything possible. So, I show up. She gets out of her car. I get out of my car. "Hi. How are you doing?" She looks at her notebook. She's like, "Not too many good comps on this one at this price point." I was like, well, you know, I don't necessarily disagree. But if you look at this market, it's crazy. She's like, "Yeah, we'll really get there." I'm like, you didn't even step inside of the house. Once we're out of our car, she already told me we will be able to get there. I was like, okay, that's good news. It appraised. There's that one.
There was one actually, a little bit more recent and probably more relevant. Again, in Sherwood. Closed December 10th of last year, under contract beginning of November. Under contract, I think it was listed 580. We got it at 560 with 15k seller credits. So, it's like a 545 net, but 560. Again, the closest comp I saw, 530. I felt really good at 530. There was one at 540. Nothing really in the 560 range unless you went two or three miles away in a completely different neighborhood. I told the agent like, "I'm not too confident in this one." He's like, "Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there," which that's what you always do on that. It appraised. No problems.
Ian: Wow.
Chad: To your point, it definitely is something. Does it always happen that way? No, I've had a couple that haven't. You just figure it out. I would say, I think we're still in the market where as a buyer and a buyer's agent, I'm not paying that appraisal gap yet. Maybe ask me next week if things continue crazy here. But I don't really want to be in that position quite yet of offering full appraisal gap. Because, as of right now, we really shouldn't be paying more. I mean, there's enough houses. I think there's enough deals where you don't have to pay that as of right now. But that could change here. But even when it does change, the strategy of just going appraisal gap and getting it and crossing the bridge when you get there has worked.
Ian: Yeah, that language and putting that in offers was definitely indicative of, "I really want this house and I'm desperate," in my opinion. Because that's just so much out of pocket if it just does not appraise well. Even 20k that is just needed to close on this home, that's insane to me. A lot of my buyers that are first-time homebuyers or house hackers, they need that 20k or whatever that difference is.
It comes to the realization of — there's two things in my opinion. We're not in that market yet to have that language in our offers. Like you've mentioned, ask me next week or maybe even next month before we even consider that. Number one, we have more inventory now than we did back in the height of 2022. I think we're up by a couple thousand, which is 50% more than what it was earlier last year, March, April, May of 2022. Not only that, but buyers are pretty apprehensive with getting into a house at that 6% to 7% interest rate range. It's almost like the stalemate right now, where still we have really high interest rates which pushes back buyers, and we still have a good amount of inventory but not a significant amount.
I think it's an interesting time to be a buyer in these days, especially even a seller. My brother is selling his place as well. He's worried, but I update him as I'm seeing showings go, or as I progress through this market as well. When I first heard you talk about it a couple of weeks ago, I was like, "No way. There's no way that that would have changed so quick." And here we are now. I'm finally experiencing showings are getting tightened up and all that good stuff.
With that being said, Chad, is there any sort of knowledge that you want to impart to the general Denver community? Is there anything that you're expecting in the next couple of months, maybe even when spring happens? Do you have any crystal ball reflections on it?
Chad: I'll do my best crystal ball. I mean, best guess, just the boots on the ground, what I'm seeing now. Obviously, nobody knows. I do know that the best time to buy real estate was 10 years ago, or five years ago, or yesterday. It's always sometime in the past. I know that buying today, it's going to be worth more in 5 or 10 years. If you're in it for the long term, just buy. It doesn't matter.
Turn the news off. People always ask me all the time. "Well, what about this recession, and the wars, and the gas prices, the President, and this and that?" I'm like, "Just turn the news off." The house is going to be worth more in 10 years. Someone's going to pay it off for you. You're going to get cash flow, if not now, in the near future. If the numbers make sense, just buy the house. Just don't do this to me. Don't be that person that would have bought it a year from now. Just do it. I know your first one is hard. It's hard. It's a massive expense. But if you got the right team, the right systems, you ran the numbers, you get the handyman, the property management, whatever it is — what your agent should be helping you with, shameless plug — then it'll work out. You just got to do it.
Back to the crystal ball. I think we alluded to it a little bit. If we're seeing this in January, if rates come down, I think March, April, May is going to be crazy again. It's not going to be as crazy because rates are still up. The rates aren't 3%, right? Maybe 20 over, 30 over, 40 over, maybe 3, 4, 5 other offers. Not getting all of your inspection items taken care of. Not getting 10k, 15k, 20k of concessions. That's probably going away.
Now, it's time to jump, time to get go. If you see it, go see it. Get it locked up. There's no sense of waiting. That's actually one more point, too. Sometimes people will be like, "Let's go see it on Friday, till Monday." Then that gives so many more time to get offers in. That's another thing I always see. Some buyers say like, "Oh, let's just see what happens with it." No. Do you want a deal? If you want a deal, we get to offer today. There's no other offers. If you don't want a deal, then let's wait until they have another offer, and we've lost all of our leverage. Now we're going by their terms, not ours. Everyone always talks about this deal. Get out. See it. Put the offer, and get it. You'll get a deal.
Ian: Early bird gets the worm at that point. A couple of things, too, is with a lot of people that are worried about the wars, interest rates, things like that, like "I'm going to be losing value if the real estate market begins to crash or correct," or whatever the C word they want to put in there. But the thing is that, in my opinion, buy and hold is always a solid investment strategy.
If you're a flipper, maybe that's something that you think about. Maybe this is something that you already strongly consider, especially with holding times, what the contractor is going to be like, what the market is going to be like, especially when you put it back on the market. But if you're a buy and hold investor and you plan on holding on to this thing for five years, nothing matters. People will always need a place to stay. It always comes back to that fundamental fact here. A lot of people often forget that we're in the business of providing people housing. That's one of the basic necessities of humans.
With that being said, Chad, I appreciate your update in all this good stuff. This is something that other people should hear about, including myself. I want to know what you're up to. I know you're always checking out houses. With that being said, Chad, I want to make sure that other people can follow you, or at least understand a little bit more about you. So, how can they reach out to you or find you?
Chad: Yeah, for sure. Email. I've always got my phone. I'm always checking emails. My email is chad@thefiteam.com. I'm on there. LinkedIn. I pushed towards LinkedIn as my social media platform. I push content out there all the time. Just find me on LinkedIn, Chad Rocke. Then just connect, and I'll connect back with you. That's where. Obviously, if you put my number down below, my number is — I'm always available to text. A bad habit, I'm always texting people at 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock at night. I love this stuff, so I'm passionate about it. 715-550-1731.
Ian: Excellent. You do have a meetup as well, getting that face-to-face contact with you, have a conversation, get to know you a little bit better with maybe a couple of beers if you're into that stuff. You have that meetup over at Zeppelin station, yeah?
Chad: Yes, thank you for that. Yes, actually, meet up this Thursday, the 26th. Usually, last Thursday of the month, typically at Zeppelin station in Denver, 6 to 8 on the Meetup app or meetup.com. You just type in 'house hackers meetup' and then all of our team's events will be listed there. I''d love to grab a beer. I keep it super informal. Some of other meetups are a little bit more formal, with guest, speaker presentation. Mine, just very chill. No agenda. No speaker. We're grabbing beers, and we're talking anything real estate-related underneath the sun of long-term rental, medium-term rental, create a financing, rental arbitrage, partnerships. We could talk it all.
Ian: It's becoming such a hot topic these days with subject too. It's weird how that sort of coming up with ChatGPT and AI coming in the mix as well. I don't even know what to focus on anymore. Is it real estate at that point? This is so crazy to me. What a time to be alive at this point? But nonetheless, Chad does come up with some really good meetups. Fantastic time. If you're hungry too, they got food over there, too. So, it's really good stuff. Good beer, good food, good vibes. Definitely go check out Chad's meetup every last Thursday of the month. Also, hit him up. Chad gave you guys his phone number as well.
I am Ian Jimeno, ian.realestateagent. I'm on YouTube, Tiktok, Instagram. I'm pretty active on social media. I put out stuff weekly, especially for you, house hackers, out there every Tuesday. Then a podcast like this is coming out every Friday. There's something for everyone here. My grandma follows me and subscribes, too. So, you should as well. There's something for everyone here. With that being said, this is the Invest in Denver Podcast, hosted by yours truly, Ian Jimeno. Thanks so much, Chad Rocke, for hanging out with me, man. I appreciate it.
Chad: Awesome. Thanks, Ian. I appreciate it, man.