Episode 024: "Soaring" Above the Competition Megan Delivering Lifestyle and Real Estate Value

From living paycheck to paycheck to becoming a successful house hacker and real estate investor, Megan Blythe is here today to share her wisdom as a seasoned investor in Colorado! Tune in for this lighthearted yet informative episode on choosing a neighborhood in Denver, exploring the recreational activities in Red Rocks, and safety measures for first-time buyers.
 
 If you’re serious about moving to Denver or investing in a property, be sure to check out her book “How To Buy A Home In Denver” with Craig Curelop -- everything you need to know all for free!

Key Takeaways:

[2:20] What Led Megan to Colorado

[5:30] How Denver Has Changed Exponentially In The Last 10 Years

[8:10] The Infinite Possibilities At Red Rocks

[13:25] How Megan Became A Flight Attendant

[23:00] The Key Learnings From Dave Ramsey

[29:50] Incorporating Financial Lessons Into the Public Education System
 [33:11] Megan’s Very First Steps As A Beginner In Real Estate
 [38:52] How She Financed Her 2nd Deal

[41:10] Megan’s Free Book on Buying A Home in Denver

[46:25] Choosing A Neighborhood in Denver

[48:25] Dealing With Safety Measures in Colorado Basements

[50:40] Negotiating Closing Costs As A First Time Homeowner

[52:50] What Does Title Do?

[55:03] To Buy Or Not To Buy HOAs?

[1:00:40] On Ian’s Big Move To Colorado
 

Resources:

Stay in touch with Ian Jimeno and Megan Blythe’s social media handles and follow them for more real estate with a dash of lifestyle goodness!

Megan Blythe

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meganinthemtns/ 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-blythe-28294150/
Calendly: https://calendly.com/meganinthemtns/
How To Invest In Denver FREE Book: https://www.thefiteam.com/buydenver 

The FI Team

Website: https://www.thefiteam.com/ 

Ian Jimeno

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ian.realestateagent/ 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ian.realestateagent 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkuP-zK4xY-wPzXg9Qelbtw 

Website: ​​https://www.ianjimenodenveragent.com/ 

Invest in Denver website: https://www.thefiteam.com/invest-in-denver

Transcript

Megan: Hello everyone. This is Megan Blythe with the FI Team. This is the Invest in Denver Podcast. Ian Jimeno is the great host. My favorite thing, one of my favorite things to do in Denver is to go and walk around Wash Park on a nice day. 

Ian: Oh, my gosh. I'm so glad you said that. Because number one, it's free. 

Megan: It is free. 

Ian: Number two, it actually is much more pleasant than I thought when I first did that. The lakes there are amazing. Especially, having the real estate surrounding at the perimeter of Wash Park, amazing real estate. And the columns, it almost looks colonial. Then there's also these flower patches there that I really enjoyed there as well. What parts of it are your favorite, as far as Wash Park goes? 

Megan: I like the little track that goes around Wash Park because it's really just over two miles. So, it's a nice little walk. But I'll often go and walk just around the neighborhoods there because the houses are so nice. They're so beautiful. There is such a mix of architecture with some of the older houses, and then you have people that have come in and build these newer houses. I'd probably say the real estate. I like walking around there and looking at all the houses because I'm a nerd. 

Ian: I'm right there with you. I had a couple of friends from San Diego come over, and they wanted to check out Wash Park. They saw the houses around there. They were like, "Wow. These houses look amazing. What are some of the price ranges here?" So, we looked on Zillow. I think they were ranging from 1.2 to maybe 2.5 mil or something like that. They were like, "Oh, my gosh. This is like a two-bed, two-bath in San Diego." 

Megan: Yeah, I know it's expensive for Denver. But for them, they're like, "Wow. That's so cheap." 

Ian: Yeah, right. Well, obviously, it's a little bit different — different demographic and different market. But we could definitely get into that later in the episode. But I want to get to know you first though, Megan. Thank you so much for being on. Like you said, I am Ian Jimeno on the Invest in Denver Podcast. This is going to be a great time. We go way back, maybe like 365 days a year-ish or so. But I'm curious. I don't know anything before that though, Megan. I want to know maybe just a quick series of events. What led you to Denver? What's your story? 

Megan: So, I'm from Colorado. I'm from Southwest Colorado, Durango. It's where I grew up. I went to high school there. I graduated. I went to college at Colorado State in Fort Collins. Then I left Colorado for a while. I lived in the Midwest. I lived in Chicago, in Minneapolis. I lived in Alaska for a couple years. Then after moving around, I was like, "You know what? Colorado is great, and I miss it." So, I moved back here just over five, five and a half years ago in 2017. And I've been here ever since. I don't plan on leaving Colorado anytime soon or in the future. 

Ian: I dig it. Definitely, you have a presence here. A lot of your clients — I've even run into some of your clients. I think it was Paige last summer. 

Megan: Oh, yes. 

Ian: I was like, "Well, you know Megan?" She's like, "Yeah, she's my agent. I absolutely love her." You definitely have a presence here, and people love you here. So, you're definitely welcome to stay. That's awesome. 

Megan: Well, thank you. 

Ian: With the Denver scene, I guess, what kept you coming back to Colorado? Was it the weather? Maybe there was something about it that drew you back to it? What was it? 

Megan: First of all, everyone knows that the weather here is great. It's also very unpredictable, as we know living in Denver. But yeah, the weather is great. I like the culture here. It has definitely changed some, of course, because Colorado has changed some in the last 5, 10, 15 years. But generally, I'd say, people are pretty happy to live here and enjoy their lives here. People like the outdoors here. I like the outdoors. People are friendly, I would say. There's a lot of young people in Denver as well, too. I'd say Denver is like a very young city. The majority of adults in the city or a large percentage of them are around our age, young adults. 

Ian: I want to say — don't quote me on this. I think I read somewhere, maybe in 5280 magazine, that 40%-ish of the population here in Denver are millennials born from '86 to '94 or something like that or whatever that age range is for millennials. That's pretty insane. 

Megan: Yeah, I think it's like early '80s, early '80s or so. Yeah, I know. But I believe that just based on what I see on a daily basis endeavor, which I think makes Denver a great city to live in if I'm a millennial. 

Ian: Yeah, no joke. 

Megan: Because there's tons of us here. 

Ian: Especially, with you living in Durango, going to high school, graduating there, and then traveling off into the world, and then coming back to Colorado, I'm sure you had some thoughts towards Denver back in the day, maybe 10, 15 years ago. Seeing it grow to what it is right now, what are some of those initial thoughts about it when you were in high school compared to what it's like right now? What's the difference look like? 

Megan: I tell people this a lot. Because people will say, "Oh, yeah, they're Colorado natives. They hate all the transplants." They say that Coloradans ruin the traffic and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, yeah, there's that side of it. But when I was a kid, growing up, we did not spend much time in Denver. Because, truthfully, Denver was not the greatest city. There really wasn't much going on here. 

Things have changed a lot in the last 15 years. But living in Colorado, being from a town outside of Denver, we didn't really come here very often, especially because it is far from Durango. Durango was about six hours away. If we needed to do shopping or go to the city for something, we usually ended up going to Albuquerque. It's closer. We would come to Denver occasionally for things, but Denver has changed a lot. I think a lot of it is for the better. I don't think the Denver of 15, 20 years ago is a city that I would have enjoyed living in at this age. 

Ian: It's amazing seeing that transition. Even like the RiNo Art District, even that has just seen so much development. Even right now, I'm just seeing these massive plates for underground parking, apartments. This is just becoming a city, like a city, city. 

Megan: I mean, 10 years ago, there was nothing in RiNo. It was warehouses. It was industrial. There was really not much there. I remember when some of these — I think it was probably 2011. I remember coming down to Denver from Fort Collins because my roommate, at the time, her boyfriend lived in Denver. He lived in one of these brand-new apartment buildings. I wish I knew which one it was now. Because if I did, I could tell you exactly what was there and what wasn't. 

But I remember it was like in downtown or RiNo area. I remember going there and thinking there's nothing around this place. This is weird. Then now it's probably an apartment building that was in RiNo. It might have been like West End or one of them, that it's kind of like on the border of downtown and either a little higher right now. Now it's probably one of the most centrally located apartment buildings in Denver. 

Ian: For real. Wow. What a transition. But let's not focus on just the city part. I know you have so many other parts of Denver that you enjoy being a part of. I know you definitely as a Red Rocks goer. You love Red Rocks so much. 

Megan: Yes, I'm guilty. 

Ian: I think it was voted best venue in America for 5 years in a row or 10 years in a row or something like that. I went there twice now to see a couple of acts. One was more of like Americana and folk, which was awesome, that live experience. But then, also, for EDM. 

Megan: Who did you see? 

Ian: I saw Rezz. Oh, my gosh. Just bass heavy. 

Megan: Yeah, electronic. 

Ian: In the trance the whole time. Before we get into the Red Rock specific thing, I have these rapid-fire questions I want to ask you. This is the first on the Invest in Denver Podcast. We're going to try this out. I'm going to give you about five seconds to answer each of these questions. I got about 10 or 12 of them for you. Are you ready? 

Megan: Okay, yeah. 

Ian: All right. What is the best way to get to Red Rocks? How do you get to Red Rocks? By bus? By truck? Maybe a big old van with friends? 

Megan: Party bus. 

Ian: What's the best time of the year to go? 

Megan: Summer. 

Ian: Best genre to listen to at Red Rocks? 

Megan: EDM. 

Ian: Best act you've seen there so far? 

Megan: That's so hard. Rüfüs Du Sol. 

Ian: Nice. I knew you're going to say that. Best tailgating drinks before entering? 

Megan: Seltzer. 

Ian: Best tailgating food before entering? 

Megan: None. 

Ian: Best post-concert food to get? 

Megan: Chick-fil-A at the bottom and the pickles. 

Ian: Oh, dude. For the first time, it's so good. I have to say they positioned themselves so well right there. I am so famished at the end of that. Totally. 

Megan: Yeah, they know what they're doing. 

Ian: They know what they're doing. A couple more. Best seats at the venue? 

Megan: Anything below row 40. Once you get up, once you get like 40s, mid-40s, and higher, the sound quality changes. At the very top, the sound quality is bad. I would not recommend it to anyone. 

Ian: Okay. Duly noted. I love that. Luckily, I've been at that 40-ish range. I think I'm at that maximum point. Last couple. The best act you regret missing? 

Megan: Stevie Nicks for summer. 

Ian: Dig it. How many people is too many people in your Red Rocks' group? 

Megan: Probably 10 plus. It gets too hard to keep track of people. 

Ian: It gets wild, doesn't it? 

Megan: Yeah, and it's too hard. 

Ian: Last one. Best dawn concert-related activity to do at Red Rocks? 

Megan: Yoga on the rocks. 

Ian: Love it. Good answers. 

Megan: Or they have a ski, like a ski season workout that they do in — I think it's like October. Those ones are cool, too. 

Ian: What is that? Ski season workout during the winter? What is that? 

Megan: Yeah, it's like a series for a month. I think it's every Saturday morning in October. It's called the SnowShape. That's what it's called. You'll go, and you'll do like exercises to help get you in shape for ski season. 

Ian: I kind of like that. I've had some issues with my calves and Achilles. Maybe that's something to really check out. Especially, me being a snowboarder, I got to make sure. I got a kerf in both sides of my leg, the tibia fibia, or whatever those two bones are. I got to work those out. Okay. Well, I'm glad. Is there anything else that you might want to impart in knowledge as far as Red Rocks go? I mean, I feel like I got a good general rundown. But I feel like you being experienced Red Rocks goer, is there anything else that the audience should know about it? 

Megan: If you get an Uber, it's hard leaving there. It gets really crazy. Don't go with too big of a group. Make sure if you do have a party bus, that whoever organizes it is responsible and good at communicating, or else you're probably going to get lost trying to get them to come back to you again. 

Ian: It sounds like you've done this by experience. 

Megan: Yeah, unfortunately. 

Ian: Well, awesome. Thank you so much for the rundown and everything, Megan. I feel like we got to know you a little bit better at the same time. We have to talk about Rüfüs Du Sol at a separate point as well. Fantastic group. 

Megan: Yeah, so good. I love them. 

Ian: As of right now, I know presently — although I haven't seen too much on your social media — you have been a flight attendant for several years now. Right? 

Megan: Yeah, I've been a flight attendant for almost nine years now. It's been a long time. 

Ian: I guess, what got you into it? It sounds like a pretty cool job. It sounds pretty cool. 

Megan: I just fell into being a flight attendant. I graduated with my bachelor's in 2014. I originally had planned on getting a PhD in psychology and conducting research. My Bachelor's is in psychology. Once I graduated and I realized that I was looking not only at a master's program, and then a four-year PhD program on top of that, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, I switched gears. I was like, "Well, I think I'm going to take a year off." 

During that year off, I got hired as a flight attendant. Then I didn't end up going back to school. So, it was something I just fell into doing. Then after a couple years of doing it, I was like, you know what? This is fun. It's been great. I've been able to travel. But it's not something I was ever super passionate about, or super like, "This is my dream. This is what I want to wake up and do every day for the rest of my life." I'm not saying I don't like it. I'm just saying it wasn't my dream, if that makes sense. 

And so, in 2015, I started to learn about personal finance and real estate investing. I realized that I was really passionate about that. So, I started working towards becoming a real estate investor and then eventually became a real estate agent. That's kind of my story with flying. Now it's very part time for me. I probably fly about four to six days a month. Sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more. But generally, that's what it's around for me right now. 

Ian: Got it. With you being a flight attendant, you're going to certain destinations. Obviously, the plane is not making a round trip for you specifically, right? 

Megan: Yeah. 

Ian: What does that look like as far as the schedule goes? Do you have to plan out? "Okay. I'm going to have to be here for four days before I can find another shift going back to hometown." How does that work? 

Megan: How it works is, airlines have their monthly flight schedules months in advance. They build trips for all the flight attendants and the pilots monthly, and we all bid on them. They do build round trips for us. So, they will always get you back to your base. It might not be the same day. But typically, the length of trips for flight attendants and pilots, unless you're flying very long-haul international routes, which I do not, are between one and four days. 

Typically, for me, a typical work trip for me is, I leave Denver on the first day. Then I come back either the next day or the day after. Typically, I'm gone one or two nights at a time. Then I usually do that about two or three times a month. 

Ian: Got you. Awesome. Is there a specific airline that you work with? 

Megan: Yeah, I work for Alaska Airlines. I've been there for almost eight years. They're a good company. Overall, pretty happy there. I mean, it was rough during COVID. It's gotten a lot better now. But that was more of just what was going on around the country, right? 

Ian: Yeah, for sure. Being a flight attendant, in the pie in the sky scenario of being a flight attendant, you get to experience all these different places. Yeah? 

Megan: Yeah. 

Ian: I know you had this goal for yourself of hitting 30 countries before you turn 30. Oh, my gosh. How many people can even say that? How many people can even say they reached 20? I feel like you're almost on the cusp of it until you hit that deadline. Have you reached it at this point? 

Megan: No, but I will. I turned 31 in February, and I will hit my last two countries in January. By the end of my 30th year, I will have been to 30 countries. 

Ian: Hell yeah. I will let that slide. 

Megan: COVID slowed me down a little bit. But I was like, I could still make it happen. 

Ian: That's right. I mean, 30 is still 30. At the 360th day versus the first day, it's all the same to me if you ask me. You're still 30. With that being said, I know you've been to some really cool places. I want to give that rapid fire question segment. I'd fire it at you one more time but more on the flight attendant and traveling side, if you're ready. 

Megan: Yeah, I'm ready. 

Ian: All right. Let's go. So, I will caveat this. This only applies if you have been to this place for at least six hours. No layovers, nothing like that. At least six hours, you have to have been at that place. 

Megan: Okay. 

Ian: Favorite country you visited? 

Megan: It's so hard. Croatia is what I'm going to say though. 

Ian: Okay. Favorite food? Location specific. 

Megan: Greek food. Greek salads and just Greek food in general in Greece. 

Ian: Fantastic. Favorite lodging accommodations? 

Megan: Like Airbnbs versus hotels? 

Ian: Yeah, maybe I'll be more specific. I guess, places to stay. Best place that you stayed at? 

Megan: Honestly, probably in Greece. We stayed in a cave house — which was really cool — in Santorini. 

Ian: That's cool. Favorite drink that you've had? 

Megan: Guaro sours in Costa Rica. I love those. 

Ian: What is that, before I continue on? 

Megan: Guaro is a Costa Rican liquor made from sugar cane, I believe. You might be able to find it in the US. I don't think so. I believe it's in other Central American countries as well. But they make it with the guaro and then a sour mix. It's like a cherry. It's really like a good beach cocktail, but I will down those when I'm in Costa Rica. 

Ian: Meant for the beach but you can drink it anywhere. 

Megan: Yeah. 

Ian: Okay. Going on. Favorite weather that you've experienced? 

Megan: I don't know. That's hard. It's too vague. 

Ian: I guess, which location would you want to live at for one year? 

Megan: I would say Thailand. 

Ian: Okay. Love it. Which location do you have planned next? 

Megan: I'm going to Colombia and Curacao in January. 

Ian: Love it. Which trip will require you to plan the most? I guess, I'll consider it for the past. Which trip did you have to plan for the most? 

Megan: Maybe going to Vietnam. You have to get visas and stuff. It's not hard. But I am going to go eventually hike down the Inca Trail and do stuff in Machu Picchu in Peru. I think that will require a lot of planning, or going to Patagonia. 

Ian: Okay. Love it. Last question. Favorite location to bring a significant other? 

Megan: I would say Hawaii. I'm guilty. I've brought two of my ex-boyfriends to Hawaii. 

Ian: It's the place to dump them. 

Megan: No, but I should have. I'd say Hawaii is a very romantic destination. 

Ian: Which island? 

Megan: I like Maui and Hawaii the best. 

Ian: Okay. I love it. I have to say that my trips to Hawaii have been a little bit more on the touristy side, sadly. A lot of my friends or family planned the Oahu, Waikiki situation. I mean, granted there's North Shores there, which I absolutely love. But a lot of the stays are in Waikiki, so I need to check out the other islands. I guess, a little bit more personal to me is the Big Island. I want to see volcanoes. I want to see the lava. I'm a geologist at heart, you know. 

Megan: Big Island is great for that. In fact, actually, I flew back from Honolulu last week. When we were flying by, we could see the lava coming out of the volcano. Because the eruption started, I think, a week and a half ago. 

Ian: That's awesome. I'm super jealous. Now that we got the traveling out of the way, I know you mentioned and touched on a little bit more when you were staying in Alaska. I read this in part of your book, which we will also get to. It's Dave Ramsey — the man, the myth, the legend. Love him or hate him, he has a brand all to himself. He definitely gets into the debt, gets you out of debt, and gets you on with your life. I guess, I'm curious what your main points that you got from Dave Ramsey's books, or his teachings, or stuff like that. What was the biggest takeaways that you got from Dave Ramsey? 

Megan: To preface this, Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover, was the first financial book I ever read. I think, at that point in time, I was just in a place where I had no savings. I was living paycheck to paycheck. I felt like I was very much living the average. Unfortunately, the average American lifestyle. 

From Dave Ramsey's books, I had the takeaway of like, "Hey, it doesn't have to be like this." I don't have to live paycheck to paycheck. I don't have to have credit card debt that I can't pay off. I don't have to have a car payment. It doesn't have to be like this. Although I don't agree with some of the things that he says now, as I've learned more about finance and my own walk that path myself, I do think that the foundation of living within your means, keeping your expenses low, and not carrying unnecessary consumer debt are really good lessons to just have in general. 

Ian: I love it. Having an uncommon life means you have to do uncommon things. 

Megan: Right. Yeah. 

Ian: I think you did those uncommon things of not having that credit card debt, not having significant debt. Luckily, Dave Ramsey. I feel like I myself had not heard of Dave Ramsey beforehand, before getting into financial independence and things like that. I just heard his name sprinkled in conversations. You know what I mean? 

Megan: Yeah. 

Ian: Then eventually, I learned that it's just hardcore saver but buy everything outright, have no sort of debt. That even includes, in our opinion, good debt as well. It sounds like you've evolved past his teachings now that you're out of debt. Now that credit cards, you've mastered them instead of them mastering you, what's your opinion now and how has that changed? 

Megan: I think at the first time when I read his book, my concern was I just wanted to pay off the debt I had. It was probably just under $20,000. Now, as time has gone on, I think some of the things that he talks about are just unrealistic. He says, "Don't buy a house unless you have 20% down." But with how much houses have appreciated, depending on how much money you make, you might be saving for a very, very long time for that 20% down, when you could buy the house with 5 or 10 and start building equity over time. I don't know if that necessarily makes sense. 

He says that your goal should be to pay off your mortgage, to not have a mortgage, which I think makes sense as you get older. I think going into retirement, your primary home, you probably want it paid off, right? But when you're young, I think it's a better strategy to acquire assets that make you money to help cover your expenses and to help cover your mortgage or to house hack to cover your mortgage instead of just like, "I'm going to throw all my extra money each month at my mortgage and pay it off early." To me, that just doesn't really make sense numbers-wise. You could be investing that money elsewhere and getting a higher return for it. 

Ian: That's exactly what I was about to say. That's really good. Having the money work for you rather than having it sit in a house, it's just doing nothing. It's just sitting there. You have the equity. Based on Dave Ramsey's teachings, you can't pull out a refinance. You can't do anything like that. If anything, it's just so much more detrimental. It's just you got to wait until that point where it's fully paid off. At that point, your money could have worked so much more for you during the 20, 30 years or however long it takes. So, I feel that. 

Now that you're in this new stage of life, your new relationship with money, you've discovered financial independence. What does it mean to you? What is financial independence? 

Megan: Financial independence, to me, essentially, is just time freedom. Not having to be chained to a nine-to-five job every day, being able to travel as I like, being able to have time freedom. Then eventually, what it really truly means to me is being able to have freedom for when I have a family. I do want to have kids. I plan on having a family eventually. I want to be able to not work the first maybe 3, 5, 7 years of my kid's life so that I can be able to be there as their mom and spend time with them, instead of putting them in daycare. I think that, as a society, we've been conditioned that women go back to work very quickly after giving birth. Their kids go into daycare. I just don't necessarily think that that's what I want for my kids. 

Ian: Totally. 

Megan: To me, that's why a big reason of why I pursue financial independence. 

Ian: I feel that. It's really good. I know with the whole daycare situation and being able to spend time with their parents versus having this connection with — I don't want to say a stranger, but someone you trust is a little bit different, right? You want to have those golden years of raising your kid how you want to raise them. That's pretty significant. 

Maybe this is a little bit more on the personal side. I'm curious what your thoughts are for this as well. I'm sort of going off the cuff here with, let's say, the education system. With us, like me and Kat, we're planning on having a child pretty soon within 2023. 

Megan: Congrats, by the way. That's cool. 

Ian: Thanks. It's going to be cool. It's not like we're pregnant right now. But eventually. This isn't the announcement, guys. It's all good. 

Megan: Don't worry everyone. If it's out that Kat's pregnant, she's like, "Thank you for this. Thank you for telling everyone I'm pregnant on your podcast, Ian." 

Ian: Right. Just put on a story, just like yeah, whatever. It's all good. The education system. Having kids brought up in the public school system and being subject to what the teachers are telling them — whether that's history, dates, facts and things like that — Kat and I are pushing along towards like, hey, what if we homeschool them? What if we actually taught them learning how to work your money as soon as possible? Just start to do things that we felt were things that we should have learned when we were kids. I want to hear your opinion on that. 

Megan: Yeah, I know. I absolutely am 100% in line with that. I think the public education system, obviously, is failing kids in this country. If you look at the stats worldwide, you can just tell. If you look at the test scores in the US, you can just tell. So, yeah, I am in the same line of thinking that way. I'm like, well, if I have financial independence, I can homeschool my kids if I want to. I think what would be more realistic and what I've heard of people doing is more of like a homeschool share where parents get together and take turns with the homeschooling, so then it's not your full-time job essentially. 

Then also, the great thing about it if you homeschool and you're financially independent is, I would like to travel with my kids. I think that that's such a huge privilege. I think being able to see the world just teaches you so much about yourself and other people. I would love to give that to my children one day. 

Ian: Yeah, dude. I love that you said that, because that's exactly what Kat and I want to do. We want to be able to live in a place for a year, whether that's Amsterdam, whether that's South America, anywhere that we want it to be. I think understanding what America is like versus any other country, you understand yourself and get uncomfortable. I think that's another really big thing too. Stop living in this bubble and get uncomfortable, and realize that there's so much more to the world than — I mean, to be honest, I've only seen 1% if even of the world. It's crazy to me that there's so much more about it than what I've seen so far. 

Anything about the whole travel aspect or even the, I guess, education system in general before I move on? I want to make sure I hear all of your points on it. 

Megan: No, I think that's pretty much it. 

Ian: Okay. Cool. Going into the education and things that we sort of learned — no fault at all to my parents. It's something that I wish was a part of my education growing up. But let's say, even real estate investing, right? 

Megan: Yeah. 

Ian: At the time, even growing up, I knew that real estate was good for one thing. It's just a roof over your head. That's about it. I didn't know that it was such a powerful tool or a powerful asset for the common Joe or the average Joe to build wealth, like generational wealth. I had no idea. I guess, going into, like I said before, your new phase in life. Now you're starting to invest. You're no longer in debt. What really got you into real estate investing? 

Megan: I think I talked about this a little bit in the book that we'll talk about later. My friend who gave me the Dave Ramsey book, her boyfriend is a real estate investor. He saw that I took interest. They're a little bit older than me, by the way. He saw that I took interest in the financial stuff. He was like, "Hey, you should start listening to this podcast. It's called BiggerPockets." So, I looked at BiggerPockets. I started listening to BiggerPockets and started just looking more into real estate investing. I read some books. I read Set for Life by Scott trench. I read Craig's book. Then, of course, many, many other financial books during this time. I just consumed a lot of it. 

I just had a realization that, wow, real estate is really powerful. It's really not that hard to do. If you think about stocks or crypto, if you're trying to pick stocks or day trade stocks, there's been a lot of volatility with crypto lately. Those things — well, crypto wasn't really around just yet. But those things I didn't really understand. Real estate was something. I was like, "I understand this." 

My aunt owned Coldwell Banker in Durango where I grew up for many years. I was her admin assessment assistant in her office for a few years when I was younger. My mom is a custom home builder. My mom actually house hacks actually for like 12 — actually, I'm lying. Longer than that. 14 years now. So, I had been around real estate. It didn't seem foreign to me. I was like, okay, I can figure this out. If I can pay off all this debt in a year, and I want something to work towards, I was like, I can figure it out. That's how I landed on it. 

Ian: Awesome. I love it. Then your first big move, what was the first move you did into investing? 

Megan: I think probably it was getting my real estate license. Because I became a realtor before I started to invest. Part of it was because I knew I would be good as a realtor just from being in that industry prior. The other part was like, okay, if I want to do this and I'm serious, I want to learn my market. I think that was probably my big move. Then obviously, the biggest one, for probably any investor, it's buying your first property. Right? 

Ian: Of course, yeah. Was that a house hack? 

Megan: It was, yeah. 

Ian: Tell us a little more about that, maybe purchase price. Where is it? Do you currently own it? 

Megan: I do. I made the mistake, which I tell people this all the time now. If I could go back and do it again, I probably would have bought my first property before I became an agent. Because once I became an agent, my first year of income as my agent, I couldn't use to qualify for my property. Because you have to have two years of a 1099 income. 

So, that significantly limited the amount that I could get a pre-approval for. Because from a lender perspective, it looked as if my income was going down because I still had a W2. I made less from my W2, and I made money from my real estate job, which they couldn't use. Because of that, I ended up buying a townhome. But it was actually good thing. That property is crushing it for me right now. I only expected to do better over time. It's a townhome in southeast Denver, by Glendale. Do you know where that is? 

Ian: I'm familiar, yeah. 

Megan: Yeah, in Virginia Village. It's a great area. I love that area down there. It's right by the Cherry Creek Trail, right by a park, right by all the nice shops in Colorado, two-bedroom, two-bath townhome. It's got a little attached garage. I lived there with a roommate for not quite two years. Then I moved out, and then I bought my second property. For a while, my roommate was my tenant. Then she moved out, and now I have a new tenant there. It's a long-term rental now. 

Ian: Okay. For sure. Going to that specific area, Virginia village, Cherry Creek area. My brother used to live over there in an apartment. We used to always go to Bull & Bush, if you're familiar. 

Megan: Yeah. I love that place. 

Ian: I love that place. 

Megan: It's very, very close to there. It's like five minutes away. 

Ian: Awesome. Then he might have been your neighbor at some point. It was walking distance from Bull & Bush, so I know that place. 

Megan: Nice. Yeah, that's a great place. 

Ian: Yeah, go ahead. 

Megan: Unravel Coffee over there is really good as well. 

Ian: I have not tried that one. Unravel, huh? 

Megan: Yeah, Unravel. 

Ian: I dig it. Okay. We're going to have to try that out. Going into your second property, how did you manage to get the finances for your next one? Because now you have a mortgage and you still have your 1099. But at this point in time, were you a part-time flight attendant? How did you get the finances for the next one? 

Megan: Yeah, by the time I bought my house hack, I was in my second year of being a realtor. Since it was pretty much exactly two years in between me buying properties, so by the time I got my second property, I had been a realtor long enough that my real estate income would count towards me qualifying. So, I was able to make it work for this second house hack that I got, which I've had since March. I'm coming up on a year this next coming March. That's how I made it work. But in the beginning, if you start a 1099, your income doesn't count for two years. So, I just tell people to be careful with that. 

Ian: We learned the hard way as well. Luckily, when we first started house hacking and getting into investing, we both had W2 jobs. She was a software engineer. "He was a skater—" it just reminds me of that song. She was a software engineer. I was a consultant geology guy. Then the moment I turned into a realtor, the third house hack, I was like, "Alright, let's get financing." I thought the conversation was going to be the exact same thing. But it turns out that was not the case. I had to go partner up with some cousins, which actually a lot of learning from that whole experience as well. 

It's just the kind of a bummer that you're not able to get financing by yourself. But luckily, for 2023, I would be in that position you were in where finally I can have my income be a part of the — what am I trying to say? Yeah, the two years of income necessary for 1099. Okay. Cool. Yeah. So, I'm really excited about that for next year. I got to get my taxes done ASAP so that the lenders like me again. 

Megan: Oh, yeah, that's another fun thing. It's taxes when you're self-employed. 

Ian: Taxes, I know. For the sake of time, I do want to get right into the book. 

Megan: It's okay. 

Ian: I want to make sure that — there's a lot more to your story, but that will have to be maybe even a part two. Maybe next year, I'll have you back on. But the biggest thing that I want to talk about here is the book, How to Buy a Home in Denver. 

Megan: That's the book. 

Ian: You're giving this away for free. Are you insane, Megan? This is all great content, and you're giving it away for free? How the heck are you doing this? 

Megan: Craig and I originally wrote this book. We sat down and we said, "What does the typical first-time homebuyer need, or the typical first-time investor?" Because, as you know, the first time you buy a property, it can be really overwhelming. There's a lot of different moving pieces. There's a lot of different information. The purchase process has a lot of different parts to it, a lot of different things that can go wrong in different ways. So, we really just sat down. We're like, "Okay. How can we help our clients and our potential clients with their first purchases, so they do not feel so overwhelmed and so much like the process is too much for them?" That was the goal of the book. 

We're giving it away for free because we think that it's the right thing to do. Because we're just trying to help our clients. Also, it's very Denver specific, right? Another great book for first-time homebuyer would be First-time Home Buyer by Scott Trench and Mindy from BiggerPockets. That would probably be more general to the entire country. Whereas our book, we talked about Denver. We talked about things that are specific to Colorado real estate law. It's really for somebody who wants to buy in Denver or in Colorado. That's part of why we wanted to give it away for free. 

Ian: Nice. With it being so hyper specific, a lot more people will be drawn to it, especially within your local community where you are licensed. Having people, it's a win-win situation for you. It's almost like you're creating the client that you want to work with. 

Megan: Exactly. 

Ian: I really admire that about the book itself. The strategy behind it, I absolutely love it. I guess, going into a little bit of the nitty gritty. How specific is it to Denver? What are you talking about that is specific to Denver, maybe even the numbers behind it, certain things in inspection? What is it about it? 

Megan: The things that are specific to Denver are the neighborhoods. We have a whole chapter where we break down the different neighborhoods in surrounding towns in Denver. So, that's one thing. Then another thing is talking about the process of buying a home in the contract in terms of how it relates to contracts in Colorado and our process here in Colorado. I'm sure you're aware. The home buying process is similar, but it's different in each state based on how the contracts are, whether you have to use an attorney or not. Different things are called differently. Here, we'll say you have an earnest money deposit. In California — I'm sure you recall — they refer to it as an escrow. So, there's different pieces that are specific to Colorado. That's what we referenced in the book. 

Ian: Love it. Because you talked about a little bit about the neighborhoods. There's some people that even want to move to Denver. I, myself, was one of them. Back in 2020 of August, it was hard to make friends in the COVID time. But at the same time, I needed to know where to live. When Kat and I were coming over to Denver, my parents were like, "Yeah, it’s okay if you stay with us. Just go hang out in the basement." I'm like, "Basements? Oh, my god. You guys have basements?" 

Megan: Oh, you don't have those in California? 

Ian: I want to say less than 1% of houses there in California have basements. Is that crazy? 

Megan: Really? That's so strange. I didn't know that. I wonder why. 

Ian: Two things. Number one is, I thought it was because of the earthquakes — which makes some sense, right? 

Megan: That makes sense. 

Ian: Because with the movement, and you don't want basements collapsing. However, based on certain scientific studies and things like that, like having a root, almost like a tooth, having something underneath below the subsurface keeps it still. So, it's not exactly that. What it was actually is, because a lot of the development in California — San Diego, specifically — it happened right after or during World War II. The 1930's, '40s and '50s builds. What happened was, they needed to build as many houses as possible, especially for the Navy military community. Digging that would cost way too much, too much time and things like that. They just wanted to put slab on grade, build it from the ground up. That's about it. That one's for free. 

Megan: That's so interesting. Wow. Now I know that. 

Ian: It's pretty cool. Going back to my original question. I want to make sure that, let's say, the people that are looking to move to Denver, having your neighborhood knowledge, let's say, I want to buy a house but I don't know the neighborhoods very well. If I were to look for something that's affordable but not very crime-ridden, where would you direct someone in that regard? 

Megan: I would tell you to look up crime stats for that neighborhood. Because, as a realtor, I can't typically steer you to a neighborhood based on crime. 

Ian: Look at you. That was a trick question. 

Megan: Not allowed to do that. If you were concerned about that, I would direct you on how to find crime stats for the city of Denver, or any of the cities in the surrounding area. I would tell you to look at those and figure out what you are and what you aren't comfortable with. 

Ian: Okay. Love it. Love that answer. Let's say, I love the mountains. I wanted to know. Geographically speaking and what I like to do for activities, let's say, I'm an outdoorsy guy. I love running. I want to make sure that I'm as close to the city as possible, but I want to have enough trails for me to enjoy my long runs. Where would you suggest? 

Megan: I would say Golden. I would say Boulder. Maybe Superior, like Louisville, Lafayette, Ken Caryl. Any of those are very Eastern Littleton, any of those communities that are really close to just the foothills of the mountain. Morrison would be another one. 

Ian: Love it. Good. I love it. Going back into the book itself. Maybe this is still a little bit more Denver specific. But for those that are not very familiar with radon — I know this is a very common thing within Denver. But obviously, being in California, that was never a thing — what is radon? Can you explain what that is? 

Megan: Yeah, radon is an odorless gas which occurs in the ground naturally, and can be linked to different types of cancer. It's typically really only an issue in basements most of the time, not always. But it does occur in Colorado sometimes in basements. If you buy a house with a basement or you just buy a house in general, we just encourage doing a radon test. Then if your radon test comes over a certain amount, you just get a radon mitigation system installed. Essentially, it just makes sure that there's no radon in your basement area, so that it doesn't pose a risk to your health or your crawlspace or wherever area there may be radon. It usually doesn't occur above ground. But since you're in geology, wouldn't you know about that? 

Ian: I do. 

Megan: How did I do? 

Ian: You did well. You did very well. The thing is that, with radon, it's a specific atom. They're like a molecule. But it does come from granite. I guess, in that regard, it is — because it's very small amounts. Granite has a very small amount of plutonium. I don't know. It's just super small. I can't emphasize enough how small it is. But nonetheless, it does radiate this radon gas. That's the extent of what I knew back in the day. Now I know it's like, hey, human health risk. Make sure you don't get it as much as possible. That's about it. If someone were to, I guess, mitigate that risk as much as possible, how much does it cost for a radon mitigation system? 

Megan: They're right around $1,000 to $1,500. They're not that much. 

Ian: Nice. Yeah, I agree. I've seen that, too. Going into not just the home inspection part of it but what I also really like about this book is the actual component of being under contract. A lot of people go from that high emotional state of like, "Yeah, showings. I'm pre-approved. I love this. This is amazing," to, "Oh, my gosh. I'm under contract. I now have a mortgage. This is insane." 

Even before having that mortgage, there's that under contract period of time where you have loan costs, origination charges, appraisal costs, credit report fees, all that good stuff. You lay that all out in the book. I absolutely love that. I guess, my question to you is, are any of these closing costs negotiable? Does the buyer have to work with what they got? 

Megan: I think it just varies lender to lender. Each lender is going to have some different costs depending on their structure, if they're a broker, what company they're for. Typically, you're going to have to pay closing costs, unless we can get you a credit from the seller, or sometimes you can get a lender credit to help with those. 

Then also, some of the fees are just not — you're not going to be able to get rid of them, unless in certain instances. If you're going to put less than 20% down on a house, you're probably going to have to pay for an appraisal. Because that's how your lender is going to make sure that they know they're giving you a loan that's not worth more than the house is. If they pull your credit, you're probably going to have to pay for a credit fee. 

You can choose to forego an inspection if you want. But I don't know why anyone ever would. I'll always say the inspection is like the best $500 to $700 or $800 you're ever going to spend. Because if you find something seriously wrong with that property, you back out of it. That $500, $800 it's cold. I would spend, I'd lose $800 any day to make sure I wasn't buying a lemon of a property essentially. 

Ian: 100%. Love it. Because this third party comes into play when you go under contract, which is title. A lot of the mystery behind what the heck title does is actually explained in the book. I really liked that chapter behind it. Do you mind explaining what title exactly does for those first-time homebuyers? 

Megan: Yeah, basically, title is going to pull the chain of title, which is why they're called a title, the chain of title on your property. If there's anything weird — I think it's rare, but these things do happen. Say, a previous owner contracted someone to come put on a new roof, and then never paid them. They filed a lien against the property owner, which then becomes a judgment against the property. The title would be able to find that. Or say, if there was a dispute between owners and somebody says that they have claimed as their property, they'd be able to find that. Or if your property taxes have never been paid, those types of things, they will find for you to protect you. 

The other thing that title does is they show you title insurance. Basically, what the title insurance claim is to protect you in case they didn't find any of these things, and then they come up at a later date. 

Ian: Love it. 

Megan: They also do — they facilitate the closing between you and the seller. They hold your earnest money. So, they're a third-party escrow company. They will go ahead. They balance all the numbers between all the parties as well. So, they play a significant role in the transaction. 

Ian: Yeah, it's almost like playing referee. You want to make sure that all teams are playing fair, according to the rules, all that good stuff. Honestly, transactions will be much harder without them. So, I'm definitely grateful for having them. 

I have one more thing that I want to bring up that you mentioned in the book as well. For a lot of first-time homebuyers, and with your experience as well with townhomes and condos as well, HOAs, that's always a common thing — whether to buy into one, not buy into one. Having an HOA on paper says like, "Hey, we take care of trash, sewer, yard work, and things like that." I know you have your reservations about HOAs. So, I'm curious to hear your opinion of them as well. 

Megan: Yeah, I think HOAs can be really good or they can be really bad. My personal experience with my HOA on my first property has been good. But I also knew what to look at when I was looking at an HOA. Where the big problems really come in with HOAs is if our HOAs are not saving enough money in reserves for the problems that will eventually arise in a community. Because things eventually break, especially as things get older over time. So, if you have an HOA that is misappropriating money or not efficiently using their funds and having a large savings reserve, you can get into trouble if something in a community breaks. It needs to be fixed, and there's no money for it. Then the HOA is going to issue what's called a special assessment. 

Basically, what a special assessment is, is a payment that the owners all have to make outside of their regular monthly HOA payments to fix an item. Sometimes they can be small. But I have seen $50,000 special assessments and HOAs in mainly high-rise condo buildings. They tend to be less in a townhome situation or single-family homes situations because there's less common systems, if that makes sense. But in high-rise condo buildings, you have a lot of common elements, the whole building itself and all the mechanics of the building. Then any sort of gym, pool, any of those items would be maintained by the HOA as well. If anything goes wrong with those items, and the HOA doesn't have the money to cover it, then the owners are on the hook for it. 

Ian: Love it. That's really good. Even having that or deciphering that difference between a high-rise building versus a townhome or a condo HOA, they all operate different. You really got to just do your research, call the HOA. That also comes up under contract. Some of these documents for HOA come up as well. So, you can really look into the nitty gritty of, "Hey, what am I getting into? Are they taking care of their finances appropriately and all that good stuff?" You got to make sure you do your due diligence. 

Megan: Right. That's part of my job and your job as a realtor. Whenever I'm helping a client buy a property with an HOA, I'm going to look at the docs. I'm going to tell them my opinion. Now, do they necessarily have to listen to my opinion? No. But I'm going to tell them what I think. 

Ian: Yeah, totally. For sure. How does it feel to be an author, Megan? This is no easy feat. This is a really good book and a chock full of good information. But how does it feel? It feels good to be done, huh? 

Megan: It feels good to be done. I initially never thought I would be someone to write a book. Craig was talking to me about it. I was like you like, "Yeah, I don't know. I'm not good at writing. I don't know what I'm doing." I really am thankful for him because he pushed me into it. He was like, "No, we can do it. It's really not that hard." He did prove to me that it really wasn't that as hard as I thought it was going to be. It feels good. I really don't think it's that big of a deal, I guess, I would say, especially because Craig and I did it together. 

Ian: Yeah, it feels good. I know I haven't written a book myself. However, it's good to know that you have someone who has experienced writing books at your back and helping you out with the stuff, laying it all out. I can only find good things with having this PDF download that's completely free, that you can give out to your clients. All of this can be given at a whim. Honestly, I'm very jealous. I'm glad that you did it. This is awesome. It's something that I could give to my clients as well. 

Megan: Yes, you can. 

Ian: It's amazing stuff. It's awesome. How can people download it? What's the skinny on that? 

Megan: You can go to thefiteam.com — I think it's, gosh, I should know this. Hold on — /bookdownload, I think. It's thefiteam.com/something. I will find it, and you can put it in the show notes. 

Ian: We can, yep. 

Megan: So, you can just find it on our FI Team website. It's the easiest way. 

Ian: Wonderful. I'm sure it's pretty easy to find. A couple of clicks here and there. Just search the FI Team book, How to Buy A House in Denver. It's amazing, written by Megan Blythe, Craig Curelop — the dynamic duo. With that being said, Megan, before we wrap up here, I do want to turn the tables here. I want to give you the mic. I want to have you be the interviewer and give me a rest on the hosting part. Ask me any three questions that you so desire. 

Megan: Okay. So, my first one is, how have you been liking Denver since you moved here? 

Ian: Nice. I'm honestly enjoying it. I do not see myself leaving anytime soon. Maybe for vacations and stuff, but not significantly. I feel like I'm calling this home for quite a while. 

Megan: Love it. 

Ian: I like my space. I feel like visiting cities like New York. Back to San Diego is merely a visit. Maybe not home. You know what I mean? 

Megan: Yeah, I get it. I feel that. Okay. Number two is, what's your next investment move? 

Ian: Next investment move? Kat and I are actually looking more into short-term rentals. We love Airbnb, mainly for the point of we want to stay there as well. So, we're looking at places that are like, if we want to be there — we sort of have a higher expectation of certain places that we want to check out — I'm sure that other people will have that same rubric. So, we're actually looking to Estes Park, getting a townhome or a condo over there. We have not fully explored Rocky Mountain National Park. So, we definitely want to have a place over there. 

Megan: Fun. I love that for you, guys. 

Ian: It should be sweet. 

Megan: Okay. Then my third question is, how is your current house hack going? 

Ian: The numbers look sweet. We're averaging about 3,500 to 3,600 ever since we got it started mid-May. That's 3,600 per month, to be clear, which is about the mortgage. Our mortgage or interest rate at the time was about 4.8 something. It's like whatever that weird a fraction is that loan officers use? It's like 7 to 8, something like that. 

Megan: 4.8259 

Ian: Yeah. Of course, we'll refinance, just so that numbers look a little bit better. That's just with the upstairs running like a two-bed, one-bath short-term rental. Once we open it all up, I'm pretty excited for that. 

Megan: And you guys are living downstairs? 

Ian: That's right, yep. 

Megan: Do you guys have a full kitchen down there? 

Ian: Right now, we have a kitchenette. What we've done is to have this program of — my parents live in Parker. They sort of meal prep it and bring it over to the house. We're roughing it right now. But at the same time, we're visiting parents. We're hanging out. We know it's only temporary. Plus, it's fun to be in a basement. Like, "Whoa, I'm underground. It's kind of cool." 

Megan: Is it? 

Ian: I mean, I don't know. I've never been here before. It's crazy. 

Megan: That's funny. My house is the opposite, where I'm on the top floor. Then the basement is the Airbnb. 

Ian: Yeah, I'm sure it's so much better. I'm not going to lie. I "enjoy it." I think it's more like I enjoy the money that comes along with it. 

Megan: Right. That's fair. 

Ian: Well, thank you so much, Megan. Obviously, this has been a fantastic pleasure. Your knowledge of the local markets, as well as Denver in general, is very obvious to the audience here. With that being said, how do people even reach out to you? What if people want to get in contact with you? 

Megan: Yeah, it's thefiteam.com. My contact info is there. Then also, my Instagram is @meganinthemtns, megan in the mtns for mountains. You can email me. You can book a link on my Calendly to talk with me if you're interested in buying, or selling, or investing. I have some personal stuff there too, as well. 

Ian: Love it. You are definitely in the mountains. I'm sure you'll love this season coming up of being in the mountains, snowboarding and skiing, whatever that might be. I know that's another point that I wish we had time to talk about, but that'll be for another time. I'm really excited for it. 

With that being said, I am ian.realestateagent. You can find me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. I post up weekly videos Monday through Friday. Edutainment is what I like to consider my content. I do all that. I'm a real estate agent. I'm part of the FI Team as well. That's how I know Megan. Make sure you reach out to us. This is Invest in Denver podcast, a FI Team production. Thanks for hanging out. I'll see you guys next week. 

Megan: Thanks, Ian.