New Investor/Agent in greater Seattle, WA

New Investor/Agent in greater Seattle, WA

Real Estate Broker · Bothell, WA · Member since 2019 · 17 posts · 11 votes

Hey everybody,

My name is Zach Schnautz and I'm a semi-long term lurker here just starting to post on the forums. I currently work as a facilities manager for a private school on the east side of Seattle in a city named Bothell. I've also recently completed my 90 hours of real estate coursework and passed the state exam and am looking for a firm to join with and begin transitioning into a career as an agent, and I'm hoping specifically to work with all kind of investors in the area. I'd also like to get into wholesaling a little further down the road. Before I started as a facilities manager I worked as a superintendent for a small, mostly residential but some commercial, contracting business for roughly 4 years and still do my own small residential remodeling jobs on the side.

I'm currently building some reserves through managing my finances and reducing expenses while maximizing my W2 savings in addition to my side work income, in hopes to start my investing career by house hacking a 2-4 multi family unit in the greater Seattle area. I'm looking specifically for a property with value add potential that I can put my remolding experience and knowledge into and utilize some sweat equity to jump start my investing career. I'm hoping working as an agent will give me better tools to find the right deal, since the market for 2-4 unit multi families in this area is very hot and very expensive.

I look forward to connecting with all like minded individuals and specifically anyone in my market!

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Michael HaasBusiness Member
Real Estate Agent · Redmond, 🌧️ Seattle Investor-Agent | 🤑 Helped 400+ Clients Invest in Real Estate | 🏘️ Owns 23 WA Rentals & Airbnbs | 🏗️ Built 5 DADU's | 📈 You Can Do It Too · Member since 2016 · 724 posts · 3k+ votes
6y

Congrats on taking the plunge and enduring 90 mind-numbing hours of training @Zachary Schnautz! Very little of what you learned will be applicable in real life but hey, you did your time and got the badge :D. 

A lot of brokerages don’t understand investors and don’t like working with them- especially the big names with big marketing budgets. Try to find a managing broker that you like and that has investment experience, and guard your commissions- one of the biggest benefits of being an investor-realitor is rolling your commissions into deals as @Chace Fraser mentioned, and that becomes less effective if you hand over a big portion of that check to your brokerage.

I’m here in Seattle as well, send me a DM and hit me up for coffee sometime!


HouseHack Seattle | Michael Haas & Team572 Reviews
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  • Realtor · Portland, OR · Member since 2017 · 357 posts · 259 votes
    6y

    Hey @Zachary Schnautz congrats on your first post and finishing up your education requirements! 

    There are tons of advantages to being a realtor while being an investor. I got my license because I wanted to expedite my learning of going through real estate transactions. I also wanted to learn as much as I could in regards to multi-family investing. After I passed my test I signed on with an investment minded company that specialized in multi-family properties and owned a property management company.  Essentially, I was getting paid for real-world experience that I really desired and could use down the road when I wanted to house hack and own a portfolio of rentals. I was getting paid to learn what I wanted to learn in order to achieve my goals!

    MLS access is wonderful, but another huge advantage of having your license is being able to roll your commissions into the downpayment of a property. Yes, you can roll your (whatever percentage) commission you get from the deal into your down payment. So if you're going to house hack with an FHA loan, you won't have to bring the full 3.5 percent down to the closing table!

    The best way to find an investment friendly brokerage would be to search people on here who are brokers/agents, and ask them who recommend to you speak with (I did this by sending them a private message). Another great way would be to post on the forums who you are and what you're looking for (here's a link to the post for some comic relief). You will certainly want to associate yourself with someone who is excellent at training and doing the types of transactional real estate you want to be involved in.

    If you have any questions please feel free to reach out.

  • Michael HaasBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Redmond, 🌧️ Seattle Investor-Agent | 🤑 Helped 400+ Clients Invest in Real Estate | 🏘️ Owns 23 WA Rentals & Airbnbs | 🏗️ Built 5 DADU's | 📈 You Can Do It Too · Member since 2016 · 724 posts · 3k+ votes
    6y

    Congrats on taking the plunge and enduring 90 mind-numbing hours of training @Zachary Schnautz! Very little of what you learned will be applicable in real life but hey, you did your time and got the badge :D. 

    A lot of brokerages don’t understand investors and don’t like working with them- especially the big names with big marketing budgets. Try to find a managing broker that you like and that has investment experience, and guard your commissions- one of the biggest benefits of being an investor-realitor is rolling your commissions into deals as @Chace Fraser mentioned, and that becomes less effective if you hand over a big portion of that check to your brokerage.

    I’m here in Seattle as well, send me a DM and hit me up for coffee sometime!


    HouseHack Seattle | Michael Haas & Team572 Reviews
  • Investor / Lender · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 730 votes
    6y

    Search for Julie Clark from the Seattle Investors Club. She works with a lot of investor agents and has a lot of experience in wholesaling and commercial investing/brokering. She also hosts weekly masterminds for investors and agents. I think the closest one to you is on Thursday mornings in Redmond.

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