Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2016 · 524 posts · 148 votes
Hi All!
Hoping everyone is staying safe and happy!
I wanted to reach out to you STR investors in the area to get the pulse on the market... How are STRs in or around Seattle in 2021? Seattle, Renton, Bellevue, Kent, Bothell, Tukwila, Kirkland, etc. Thanks in advance all!
Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
5y
Hey @Gulliver R., well, personally I wouldn't invest in the greater Seattle area. The Western Washington area is not landlord friendly at all. Every other day there is some kind of ordinance, fee, prohibition in Seattle that restricts what an owner can do with an investment property.
There will be others who live in Seattle that will disagree with me. Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond are on the west side of Lake Washington and not part of Seattle. It is going to take some research on your part to really narrow things down.
Do you want it for a pure investment? A place to visit from time to time? There are other places in the US that will do much better.
Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
5y
Hey @Gulliver R., well, personally I wouldn't invest in the greater Seattle area. The Western Washington area is not landlord friendly at all. Every other day there is some kind of ordinance, fee, prohibition in Seattle that restricts what an owner can do with an investment property.
There will be others who live in Seattle that will disagree with me. Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond are on the west side of Lake Washington and not part of Seattle. It is going to take some research on your part to really narrow things down.
Do you want it for a pure investment? A place to visit from time to time? There are other places in the US that will do much better.
Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2016 · 524 posts · 148 votes
5y
@Michael Baum it would be for investment. And I hear some investors say Western WA is good and some say it bad. The reason why I pick WA is because I have boots on the ground there.
@Sherief Elbassuoni right now STRs are being heavily effected by the pandemic. But like you said this is not going to be forever. Hence my message I started here.
Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
5y
Ok @Gulliver R., boots on the ground is nice, but you can get all your systems pretty much anywhere. Personally, I think it is a crapshoot, with the worst odds. Things are not looking up in Seattle IMHO.
Just a few hours ago, Jeff Bezos has announced he is stepping down as CEO of Amazon. That will have an impact. Frankly, there are many here that feel that Amazon has one foot out the door. With the Amazon head tax, new taxes being proposed just for the 4 billionaires living in WA, defund the police movement, the legalization of all drugs in Seattle and the pending removal of bail for all crimes as well as eliminating misdemeanors as arrestable crimes, it's not a surprise.
Rental Property Investor · Enumclaw, WA · Member since 2021 · 2 posts · 3 votes
5y
I can promise you Amazon is not going anywhere :) Amazon's growth is meteoric so it just needs more space, but it will still continue to grow in the Seattle region. The one difference is that it will grow beyond South Lake Union. It's growing its Bellevue office significantly and it recently asked employees which local cities would be best for satellite offices. The options were Bothell, Everett, Renton, Tacoma, and Redmond.
Seattle is certainly a hot market and it may be hard to mimic the growth of the last 5 years, but I can assure you that Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, Tableau, Starbucks, Boeing, etc., are not going anywhere. (not to mention major offices being built by Google, Apple, Facebook, Adobe, among others).
Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2016 · 524 posts · 148 votes
5y
@Jace McLaws I agree. The tech industry had shown that it is pandemic proof. Or more over, it excels more during a pandemic. And western WA is tons and tons of tech companies.
But the question is when will STRs do well again? I’m thinking end of this year. Or beginning of next year. But buying now and getting ready for it now is good timing.