Hello Seattle Investors

I currently own and live in a condo in Seattle. I'll be moving out at some point this year and was contemplating renting it out. I was curious if anyone here owns condos in Seattle (~750 sq ft) and what the vacancy rates and asking rent prices have been. Have you been making concessions? Have your asking rents been going down?

@Albert Le , unfortunately, the answer is yes, many Seattle condos experienced rent drops lately. Working from home culture encourages tenants to look outside the Seattle core and now tenants are willing to live in the suburb. 

I am an investor before being an agent, and my strategy with Condos is: "Do not invest in Condos". 

I have single families/ADUs/Rent by room/... and because of the Moratorium, I was not able to raise the rent, but I renewed for tenants with the same price. I also started switching the year contracts to month-to-month if someone is leaving out.

Feel free to reach out. I am always open to more conversation over the phone or coffee!

@Sherief Elbassuoni I can understand your comment relevant to apartments but condominiums (ownership of unit) are different. I am seeing condo sales vs condo listings in Seattle to be more aligned to a non inflated market. What are your thoughts on the condo product type currently.

What are folks experiencing in investing in condo turns in other cities like Manhattan, Chicago, Seattle, etc.

@Brian Arnold Do renters typically have a preference between an apartment management company vs a single owner? I'm asking in response to your statement that condos and apartments are different.

@Albert Le Totally, yes..many folks are moving to more rural areas like TX, FL and MN where large corporations have decided to outsource and condense. You may have more luck renting out the condo unit advertising on Furnished Finder. Due to COVID, there have been numerous healthcare travelers committing to short-term assignments (typically 13 weeks) in Seattle.  They are mostly professionals with housing stipends paid for by the hiring company so you'll have some financial and emotional securities there.  It's also a tax-deduction advantage. 

@Tiffani T. I never thought of that and it's a great idea to consider. Thanks!

@Albert Le  I'm curious where about in Seattle? Capitol Hill, Bell? Do you have this advertised somewhere as of yet?  I may have potential nurses whom are interested. TM

@Tiffani T. In Ballard. I don't have a timeline of moving since it's highly dependent on when I'm asked to go into the office for work (I got a new job OOS). At this point it's a rent vs sell type situation for me.

@Brian Arnold , I am not a big fan for Apartments investment. Same for Condos (not a big fan of investing in it). This is for many reasons: 

1- I like the rent by room strategy and have properties like that. Unless you have enough street parking, the HOA may have restrictions on how many cars per unit.

2- I like to BRRR my properties. Some HOAs have restrictions on what you can/can't do while fixing your property. They may also have some restrictions on building materials,....

3- The HOA regulations will typically come first ahead of the City regulations. For example, if the City of Seattle is allowing up to 8 unrelated tenants in one house, the HOA may limit the number to something lower than that (Which may impact the cash flow)

4-.....

This is why I prefer to BRRR single families

@Sherief Elbassuoni I love this 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾 great info

@Sherief Elbassuoni / all: to clarify, I’m referring to flipping condos not buying and renting.

Thanks @James Ortiz .

@Brian Arnold , I also do flips. As mentioned above some HOA have limitations on what you can do or cannot do while rehabbing the unit. Some HOAs will also dictate the materials or finishes. We also typically do rehabs with hard/private money lenders, and some HOAs are just so slow to come back to you with any approvals which is not good while paying high interest rate for private/hard money lenders.

I do not see the need for doing rehabs/flips in condos if I have other simple routes in single families!

@Sherief Elbassuoni is this reply based upon actual condos that you have flipped in Seattle? Other cities? I’ve converted condos in other cities and haven’t experienced the drawbacks you mention.

In my experience; Yes there are building envelope parameters / restrictions and, yes there are guidelines that need to be managed like start / stop work hours / utility shut down coordination / waste disposal management, scaffolding permits etc. nothing out of the ordinary when working in an urban environment.

Yep, ads like that are all over the place right now (Free rent & Free parking). This is from "thedanforthseattle.com" website. 

I am also a realtor. Based on how many of my buyers are interested in a condo vs how many of them are interested in a single-family, the buyers who are interested in condos are way less than my buyers who want single-family. If I am a flipper, why would I target the current small condo buyers portion of the market? 

This may not be the case after Covid is over. When employees start to work again in the Central Business District (CBD) or the core of the City, things may change. When this is gonna happen, no one knows?

As usual, after I went to danforthseattle website, Facebook showed me their ad :) 

Anyway, this ad showed up to me with 3 free free month of rent, and one year of free parking!