All Forum Posts by: Maria Keating

 Kathryn, I would love to hear more about your experience with a beach house in Ocean Park.  I've been looking at that area for a couple of years, hoping to one day own a beach house there.  Right now, the only way to do that is if I can supplement with vacation rentals.  Few properties are zoned for vacation property though.  I'll private message you.

I am looking at LongBeach, WA area.  Much more scenic than Ocean Shores with much better beaches.  Easy access from Portland and Seattle.

What type of investment?

Do you intend to come on a tourist visa and either buy and hold or flip properties?  If that is the case, I think taxes are the least of your problem.  Unless you have cash to buy the properties, I don't think you'll find funding.  Not sure what problems would turn up when it is time to record properties in your name.

Regarding taxes, the income from the investment property will be subject to income tax and likely withholding as well.

Are you intending to flip in the US?  Are you a US citizen or PR?

What's the connection with the US?

First of all, I am amazed how much house one gets for the money up north :)

I also think that lawns naturally look a bit tired at the end of summer, even in Washington.

No shows and cancellations seem to be par for the course, so I've started to confirm appointments the day prior.  Once I started confirmations, I had no more no-shows.  Cancellations, but no no-shows. 

I'll be curious to hear where you get most of your traffic.  I rent out a condo and Craigslist was by far the most traffic generator.  I paid a service for one month that posts to their own site and a number of others and that did not generate any traffic.  Hotpads is second. 

Good luck and keep us posted.

I don't think anybody truly understands how the scoring works and depending on the company, you can see a difference of 100 points between the three scoring agencies (personal experience).   I would be more concerned about 'issues' than a particular score.  Any late payments?  Any collections?  Any judgments?  Those are red flags, a number, not so much.  Also be aware that most immigrants (adult immigrants at least) will have a much lower score than a comparable citizen due to a much shorter than average credit history. 

I agree with everything you said, but depending on local demographics, undergrads may very well pay that amount.  Three bedrooms = three students, $500 a person.  You will not get ANYTHING within walking distance to the UW at that ratio in Seattle.  My son spent $760/month on a dormroom that he shared with 2 others.  These are true dormrooms, not the posh ones with living rooms that some of the private California colleges offer...  This year, he and two friends took out a lease on an apartment for $1,900 = 2 bedroom one bath.  No vacancies on those properties ever...

Which brings me to my question:  how close is it to college, are students truly the target market?  What distinguishes your property from the identical one across the street?  (I doubt it is identical since you put a third bedroom on...  did the other property owner put the same third bedroom on in the exact same way?)  In general, there are never identical properties, perhaps identical floorplans, but upkeep, upgrades, views are all distinguishing factors.

I have thought about it.  The way I analyzed it was to determine how much I thought it would cost me to evict someone.  From lawyers/court fees to lost rent.  Then I determined that I'd probably collect rent for a year before **** went sour.  So, if I divide the cost by the number of months, I would want to add that amount to the rent for starters.   I also would have added an additional deposit which could be applied to the last months rent (I don't think security deposit can be used for outstanding rent, but am not sure).  At that point, I knew it was too much of a rent hike to make it worth it for me, but the applicant made it super easy with a load of unpaid judgments and collections. 

In my state you can charge a higher rent/deposit due to credit or background check issues, but you do have to disclose that to the tenant in writing.

Thanks @Peter Tiberio for that info. 

Great point on the potential issue with liens on the property.  Unless there is a reliable method of determining this, it is way too much risk for me.

I'll call my mortgage broker to see if a mortgage could be lined up, etc. The other issue is that at this moment, it is highly unlikely that a bank would write a mortgage on the property. Though, a potential buyer would not know this. There is an outstanding repair issue that will run very costly, but it is not decided/confirmed. Thus, it will not show up on any disclosure forms the HOA has to provide. It will only show up when the bank runs a full review of the HOA minutes, which happens at a later point... So, if someone pre-qualifies on a mortgage, the bank may still not write it once they discover the issue in the minutes. (this happened a couple of times with another condo in that building) That's were my hesitation comes in as well... I know about the issue and am confident it will get resolved and know the approximate $$ amount, enough to get comfortable on a bid. But if the issue is not resolved by then and my mortgage would not get approved because of this item, it would suck not being able to pay back the bridge loan at an astronomical rate.

Hi, I'm semi interested in a condo in Seattle that will come up on auction in October.  Reading the foreclosure guidelines, it seems that one needs to have cash to bid on the property.  Is that how all foreclosures work?  You'll have to bring $300K if you want the property? People actually do that?

If anyone is familiar with Seattle foreclosures, is there a bidding war like on the regular market?  Crazy bids?

FWIW:  The reason I'm interested in this unit is because I already own an identical unit in the same building.  Thus, I am intimately familiar with the area/building/renters market.  I'd be interested in the unit at the opening price or thereabouts, but not much more.  But this is in an area where even a tear down goes for well above half a million.

Any insights/experience with Seattle foreclosures is greatly appreciated.