Washington state rental property investment

[Shruti Patankar]

I am just starting to look for rental investment properties (condo/town-home/apartments < 300K) in Seattle suburbs of Washington state. Any areas that I look for, nothing is cash flowing. I am considering following amounts as operating expenses for the property:

1. Mortgage (4% interest rate)

2. HOA

3. insurance 

4. taxes 

5. vacancy rate of 1 month per year

6. CapEx {5000$ per 7 years for paint and replacing cabinets}

7. Repairs (5%)

8. Prop management fees (10%)

Any suggestions with respect to numbers that I am using above (do they look right or are they too conservative)? 

Can anyone suggest any areas/locations with properties that cashflow? Just want to take an example from Redfin, run numbers and see if it cashflows.

[Nathan Gesner]

You should seriously consider investing in another market. Check out Podcast #257 with David Greene and consider buying his book where he explains everything you need to do. Instead of buying a $300,000 rental in Washington that doesn't cash flow, you can find a market where you can buy 3-4 decent houses that cash flow $100 - $200 a month.