All Forum Posts by: Alex Chin

Hey @Wes Blaney. Cheers to getting active in the community, mind if I ask what/where you're currently looking for or looking at as investment opportunities? Seattle is pretty cash-intensive these days, you looking further afield?

Hey @Arthur Davis. Sounds like what you're looking for initially is to partner with someone. I think that it would be worth it for you to reach out to real estate agents in your area and ask them if they have contacts or folks they could introduce you to who need someone they can trust as a partner who can handle the contracting and handyman side of the business.

I would look to the Bremerton community, both for partners and personal investment opportunities. Good place to be a landlord and relatively close to you. Tacoma might also be an option, it's more difficult to get to, but bigger opportunity with the bigger population.

Cheers, and put your questions and needs out there, start building that network! It ain't easy, it ain't fast, but it will give you success.

Hey @Tuan Nguyen. Welcome to community and here's to success! Let me know if you are interested in speaking with an agent who operates in those areas, I know one who is extremely high energy, very good about communication, knows her stuff.

I would say that if one requirement is to travel to Kent, then N. Seattle should be ruled out, daily commute down either 99, I-5, or I-405 would be pretty terrible.

Solid possibilities in the area include Renton, they've really cleaned up that city and by a number of accounts, it's flourishing. Tough to find a good SFH or small-multi deal, pricing has easily edged up over $100k/unit in the small-multi market, SFHs are probably gonna run you pretty highly as well.

I believe you should be able to achieve those kinds of numbers in Eastern WA, specifically the Yakima area, but it isn't something I've looked into too much myself. I know for sure that anything priced at $50k/unit within an hour of Seattle will have some kind of massive renovations/rehab needed to bring it into working order.

If you're not afraid of those caveats and can find some partners, I've seen a couple of ~30 unit complexes on the MLS with an initial ask around $1mm-$1.5mm. Might be worth checking out.

@Patrick Britton - Well, you have hit the nail on the head for why the majority of wholesalers get a bad rep. Many of them are essentially re-packaging deals from the MLS, I would think it obvious that those folks won't be much use to an investor.

A good wholesaler gets you deals that don't hit the MLS. By working with a distressed homeowner, they can negotiate lower prices and if they know what they're doing, remain realistic about ARV and repairs. Probably one reason why you haven't run into many good wholesalers is because the good ones quickly build up the capital they need to just start flipping the deals that they find. Why just get a slice of the pie when you can do it yourself and eat the whole thing?

Also, why would a good wholesaler bring a deal to a broker in the first place? They will have their buyer list, investors who can access sufficient funding to quickly close on a legitimate deal in cash, no financing needed, transaction done. A broker or real estate agent is never involved until the investor has finished fixing up the property and is ready to market it to the general public.

Real estate investing is oftentimes about the niches people fit themselves into. A lot of wholesalers aren't good at it because they're reading from a script with minimal training and experience in actual rehab. Takes work to sift through the bad ones and find a few gems who actually like the process, but that's part of the job of the investor.

@Sonia T. - I would recommend speaking with a wholesaler if you are interested in a property that needs work. A good wholesaler can work with distressed owners to get much better deals than will hit the MLS, the drawback is that these deals will usually require significant renovation/rehab/repairs to get them closer to your ideal home. However, if that doesn't scare you off, then yes, a wholesaler could potentially answer your needs.

If you want a move-in ready home, then working with an agent or broker is definitely the way to go.

I think you're going to have to give the community a bit more information than that for us to really help and make recommendations to you.

Price range? Looking for partnership or purchase on own? exit strategy? etc.

@Bowen Hadley: Welcome, welcome to the real estate investment community of Washington. I think you'll find a significant number of real estate investors who also play significantly in the market, if nothing else but for maxing out IRAs or 401(k)s.

Which aspects of real estate are you most interested in? I myself am a new landlord, working with small multifamily buildings in Tacoma.

If you're interested in meeting other investors in an informal setting, there is a meet-up in a little over a week, on the 18th at 7:00pm, in Lakewood, hosted by @Kevin C.. Keep an eye out for the notice, it will be posted here soon enough. I would suggest setting up your keyword alerts to help you keep an eye out for posts about information in your area.

@Mo B. Greetings and welcome to the community. Please be sure to use the "reply" function when responding to comments so as to let a person know.

What sort of questions or information did you want to know? What areas of real estate are you active in currently?

Good luck in your journey, here's to success!