All Forum Posts by: Howard Edson

Actually that excerpt doesn't seem to be "a law" so much as "guidance" from the department of licensing. 

@Aaron Ramm 

Thanks. I'm not familiar with that law, and again I'm not an attorney, but it seems to say that in Washington, a wholesaler needs a real estate license, even though (per the consensus in this thread) a General Contractor license does not seem to be required. That's news to me. Even though I'm not focused on wholesaling myself, I'd be interested in learning what your lawyer advises re: this law...

@Lian Chavda 

You may want to speak to an attorney, but the way I understand it, this law would not restrict the activity of a wholesaler in Washington, because the wholesaler doesn't do more than $500 worth of work to improve the property, and more importantly because you're not actually buying and then subsequently selling the property, as you're never on the title at all.

Thanks, @Jay Hinrichs - I appreciate the advice!

For what it's worth, I wound up getting licensed. 

Kevin:

I'm in Seattle also. New to real estate investing, but also struggling to make the numbers work on some of my prospective buy-and-holds. I've lived in Denver and Austin in the past and it was a different ball game there. 

 @Jay Hinrichs:

Jay - good point. I'll look into the costs on Monday, talk to a few flipper colleagues in WA and will likely pursue the license. It's important to me to operate legally, and seeing that someone with your experience has chosen to do it reinforces for me that it makes sense.

I'll study the cost of getting licensed, bonded and getting the $250K in insurance necessary to comply with the Washington L&I rules for registering as a contractor. But honestly my initial reaction is maybe I should focus on rentals instead of flips, or perhaps a hybrid (rent my flips for a year between buying and selling). Besides avoiding triggering this law, my profit would be taxed as a long-term capital gain instead of ordinary income. 

Thanks, @Bryan R. Is it also necessary to incur the expense associated with getting bonded and insurance, in order to flip legally? If so, any tips on how to do that most economically?

Question for Washington state flippers. I'm a beginning investor in the Seattle area. Just heard about Washington state's anti flipping law. It seems that only licensed contractors are legally allowed in Washington state to sell a house within 12 months of completing more than $500 worth of improvements.  

Is that law still in effect? Under what circumstances is it enforced? Should I look into becoming a licensed contractor so that I can do my own flip deals?