All Forum Posts by: Brian Hughes

$300K will probably find you a respectable SFR or maybe a small duplex in some areas of Tacoma and smaller, further out cities and towns in western WA. If looking at stuff that isn't close to a large urban area pay close attention to the local economic conditions. If you aren't familiar with the area (assuming you arent owing to asking for where to find properties) be sure to budget for a LOCAL reputable property management in your income/expense calculations.

The homeless/drug/mental illness problem is severe right now but these sorts of issues do come and go over time.    Eventually the city will (through changing strategies or enough voters getting angry at current leadership) to start to affect the conditions on the ground.   That said,   its probably still gonna be years.

Is the church actively providing services or are people just hanging there?   If its the former they are probably also trying to keep control of things.   If its the latter they are more victims of the circumstances.

I'd talk with neighboring residents and owners and get their take on it.   And yes,  Prior poster comments on your intended use of the property and the local RE market for sales and rentals would be big factor.

Now with MHA,  that is a big factor too.  Did the zoning just change?

the only place in WA you might find a house for $30K is small deeply rural agricultural areas in eastern washington.    Anything  you buy will need lots of work and probably won't have a good tenant or economic base.    

Might make more sense to put $30K down on a $150K condo somewhere.

Get the schedule E (tax reporting) for the last year.   Sellers should be able/willing to provide this and will show actual rents received and costs they were able to deduct.  This will be the opposite from the rosy picture the sellers paint when marketing the place.   Hopefully the two values are close,  reality is someplace in between.

Also see if they can provide last few months of utility bills.    Can prove their expenses are inline with expectations.    After going under contract you should have access to review the complete rental agreements.   If they are obviously DIY or done on old forms or forms not designed for your area,  that is a red flag.  

Since it is a smaller property a full interior inspection should be part of the deal -  If they cannot get access (tenant refusing to cooperate) or will not and make some excuses that is another red flag.

IIRC The fee is between $5 and $30-something per sf for development, OR including someplace between 5% and 11% of units as permanently rent controlled/affordable. Fee must be paid whether your are building an ADU or a 100 unit tower. For those choosing to incorporate the affordable units, It also means paying the city annual fees to monitor your rent controlled units for complaince, and a bunch of other rules designed to force you to spend/maintain equally on rent controlled and market units (If you put marble countertops in the market units they want them in the rent controlled units too). The exchange is taller building heights in upzoned areas, to theoretically allow a similar overall number of market units.

Supposedly most developers are for this, as i was touted as a 'grand bargain' between the city, developers, and low income housing advocates. Missing from that are middle income people and smaller investors. For example, anybody building townhouses to replace older properties in L2 zoned city lots are never going to choose to include a below market unit (typical project replace an older SFH/Duplex with 4 or 5 townhouses) since they would be far overperforming the ratio and losing money in the process.

Since I own a now-upzoned-urban-village property the question for me is whether the upzone changes the hold/sell equation.  Short term probably not as its a good property,  long term it may change the ultimate fate of the building.

All the local neighborhood forums like nextdoor people are discussing this vigorously right now...

PM me and I can give you some info on a duplex in Georgetown I have under contract to sell (not going to post numbers publicly on forum) - might give you some idea what you could get and what it would likely need for the price I accepted as a seller.   I lived there for last 10 years as part of a 'laddering' house hack strategy.  

I've noticed that there are quite a few former AFH properties in the Burien suburb (about 15 minutes S of downtown seattle if no traffic) - There seems to be 2 or 3 such houses that come onto the market every year.    They are typically mid century 1 story with basement type deals,  where they put the staff quarters and utility stuff in the basement and have the residents upstairs.    I don't know what sort of requirements AFH's have insofar as the structure but these may already be compliant to some of it.

I have a 4-plex in Burien and also grew up near there,   so I can say its a decent still-relatively-working-class, comparatively affordable area but likely to grow rapidly in the next couple of decades.   They are totally redeveloping their core with midrise housing,  etc.

I may be doing something similar,  though in my case what I really want is a workshop,  but I also want to future proof the house I recently bought as the city keeps growing so anything I build will be convertible to a living unit.

If your home is in single family zoned area the owner must occupy at least one unit of the property for the 6 months of the year, but it can be either the main home or the (D)ADU.

There are various proposals floating about to either allow 2 ADUs (one detached and one attached) per SF lot, or just eliminate SF zoning like minneapolis (I think) just did because you know, SF zoning is bad now. Not sure the latter will fly, and even the former is getting a lot of pushback from some groups. Right now I think ADU requirements include a parking space for the (D)ADU but again the city is looking at relaxing that.

I know there are rules around what kind of businesses you can run out of a SF zone,   that one I cannot provide insight on.

look at renton, burien, tukwila, skyway. Still good commutes to seattle, including transit options, and much better prices than close in. I just bought a SFR (for myself, not for a rental; I am officially ending my 12 years of living in a unit at one of my investments) in skyway/upper rainier beach. The place needs enough elbow grease that non-investor types weren't interested in it, but its not bad overall and mostly needs cosmetics after a couple significant but totally fixable issues, and its a daylight basement mid century so that should I decide to do it has great ADU and DADU potential, and I paid about 60% of the average seattle SFR price.

Some of the neighborhood assessments given above may be a little dated.   Yes, 15 or 20 years ago I would never have considered it and today Rainier valley/beach is one of the last up-and-coming areas of seattle but has plenty of decent homes in respectable neighborhoods at some of the best prices in seattle.    South beacon hill, very nearby and with some comparable neighborhoods/homes/pricing, was recently determined to have one of the LOWEST property crime rates of any area of the city.   (you can dig up the seattle times article,  I'm too lazy)

FWIW I am in the process of closing on a new primary residence for myself in upper Rainier Beach  (2300sf 2 story mid century,  $430k, mid block on residential street, needs a little spit and polish, but totally habitable).   I've met several of the neighbors,  and several of them are professional types and most have only been there for a few years;  others have been there decades.   The home is walking distance to groceries, dining,  and light rail,   and five minutes from I-5 via Ryan way.     

There are still a few pockets I would not want to buy in,  but 90% of RB/RV is worth considering on a $500K budget.