Buying in Seattle/lack of cashflow
I am looking to buy my first house hack in the greater seattle area, more south of seattle in puyallup, auburn, kent area and I am finding it incredibly hard to make any deals work in regards to cash flow. I have yet to find any property that will cashflow positive even once I move out of the house hack. I have had agents and lenders tell me "thats a pretty great deal!" When I would be getting -1400 dollars in cashflow.
In every real estate book, they talk about cash flow being the only metric you can really reliably bet on. So it is incredibly frustrating seeing that it is seemingly impossible to get any cash flow or even break even on a house after I move out and rent out the room I was living in. How am I supposed to continue to trajectory of buying a house hack every year or two if I am continuing to rack up more and more payments I have to make rather than assets that put money in my pocket? Am I just supposed to buy the house and hope that I can eventually raise rents and refinance so that I can break even and maybe make a little money on monthly cash flow? Help me figure out how I am supposed to make a deal in this expensive market.
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In quality markets the cazhflow typically comes strong in year 3-5+ after rents have grown and mortgage stayed the same. You can cashflow year 1 but need decent downpayment and probably 3 or 4 unit buildings. Even cheap areas do not really cashflow in 2026 when run numbers accurately for turnover costs, etc. Those cheap midwest Ohio or Indiana are selling 400% higher then 10 years ago with the same junk tenants that cause costly turnovers.