My name is Matt Bowers - I'm from the Seattle area and I work at Zillow. I guess that's where a lot of my real estate background comes from... absorption. My wife and I bought a big house with an apartment basement about 18 months ago, did the renovation ourselves and are renting it out for ~$1500. We enjoy being landlords enough that we're currently in the process of closing on a multifamily in Ballard.

My long term goal is to be a full time real estate investor, managing my own properties. We would prefer to invest in Seattle, but it's pretty tough to find properties that make fiscal sense.

I'm especially interested to hear from the rest of you about the places you're investing around the Northwest! Looking forward to meeting you. (if you work in downtown Seattle, I'd love to have lunch sometime.)