All Forum Posts by: Alex Chin

Hey @Courtney Windh. Welcome to the Puget Sound real estate investor community. As you undoubtedly know, it's a red-hot market in Seattle/Eastside, great for those who are into flipping, not so wonderful for the cash-flow folks.

What are you looking for as far as contacts, advice, rants, jokes, or other bits of semi-solicited information? What questions can the community answer for you?

Hey @Janet Lee. I would definitely look to get a better sense of rental rates for the type of unit that the triplex has. See if it is under or over market for rents, that should help inform your decision.

Without knowing anything else, I would guess the asking price is around $550k-$600k. I would not be interested in such a deal, as it would be asking you to pay market rate for a fully rehabbed property when in reality, it probably has significant deferred maintenance.

At the moment, we just don't have enough information to make any kind of real analysis, just guesses based on what we know of the Seattle market, and the rent/taxes.

@Cody Jackson - I haven't looked very deeply into flips, I don't have the capital or expertise to do so, can't help you much there. I do have a decent grasp of home pricing in the area, I would say Redfin is a good online resource for doing a casual comp of a property, it's at least good enough to tell you if there might be something to a deal.

I would be incredibly hesitant to flip remotely, I would want a stakeholder of some kind in place to manage the project and ensure work is done in a timely manner. One avenue you might want to explore is finding a local partner that you could JV deals with. Trick is obviously finding someone trustworthy, but if you have friends/family in the area, they might be a good starting point.

@Adaeze Medani - welcome to the forum and congratulations on soldiering through your years at the UW. I was part of the class of '12 myself, Environmental Studies.

As far as real estate goes, what are your short-term goals? What sort of information or steps are you looking to take in the next 6 months or so?

Hey @Aeron Reddy. Welcome to the greater Puget Sound real estate investor community. Here's to your success in this field, did you have specific questions you wanted answered?

As for starter tips, I would do a couple things:

1) Narrow down target area - pick an area, don't try to invest in the entire Everett-Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan market until you have the systems in place to do so.

2) Get familiar - learn rental rates for your target area, learn prices for your area, get a sense for what your options are to cash-flow

3) Stay open - One thing you might want to do for your first deal is to pair with an experienced investor and go 50-50 on a project. Sacrifice a bit of the profit for valuable learning.

I would inform them that under your "no smoking" policy, this counts and that you will be enforcing the applicable penalties that are hopefully set out in your lease.

H'lo @Cody Jackson. Great to have you joining the Pacific Northwest investors community!

Seattle and King County in general are almost impossible from a cash-flow standpoint. The deal that pencils out will be extraordinarily rare and likely requires a good bit of searching to find.

I would look north to Snohomish and Skagit counties, and south at Pierce. Everett is pretty tapped out at the moment, but look for more inventory in the coming months, and it has a very strong renters base. In Pierce, you have Tacoma well positioned to benefit from expansion of Light Rail and continued city investments in development. Lakewood and Auburn are also decent target markets, many investors I have spoken with have found deals that pencil well in these areas.

Hey @Nathan Labrum - I believe it all depends on what you're looking for as far as return goes. Everett has pretty slim pickings at this point, the small-multi market heated up and all of the good MLS deals were grabbed over the last few months, we could see things open up a bit in the spring though.

Forget about Seattle, darn near impossible to find a cash-flow property on the MLS at this point.

The Tacoma-Auburn area still has many intriguing possibilities, I would concentrate my search in that area if you're looking for a solid income opportunities. One note of caution is to be sure you fully understand the area and situation you're getting into, know when a property has septic vs. sewer, be cognizant of the rental market you are catering to.

Good luck!

Contact @Albert Bui. He is a landlord and investor himself, in addition to being a mortgage broker based in the Tacoma area.

Forgot to mention that for Meet-Ups, @Kevin C., @Troy Fisher, and @Tiffany Plovie are your connections to the local meet-ups. You just missed the south-end meet, but they are held once a month and attract a good group of local investors.