All Forum Posts by: Michael Haas

Congrats on your first Deal @Debbie Welch! The VA loan is a great product to use to scale up your portfolio, especially when combined with live in flips or househacking like you mentioned. Thank you for your service!

I'll second what others have said - educating yourself (on BiggerPockets and elsewhere) and building your team (Realtor, Investor, Contractors, etc) is a great first step!

Do you own your own home yet @Matthew Anderson? If you don't HouseHacking would be a great way to get started. We've HouseHacked 4 times now, and it is a big reason why we have such a large portfolio of rental properties now - it really works! There are downpayment assistnace programs available to home owners and househackers that aren't available when buying the house as a straight rental - with the WSHFC down payment assistance program you can get into a house for pretty much just the closing costs- could be just 6k up front cash to close on a $500k house. If that house has a unfinished basement you can finish and rent out, or even just extra rent-able bedrooms, your mortgage payment will likely be significantly less than you currently pay for rent, + you reap all the tax benefits and forced savings effects of home-ownership.

Send me a message if you want to talk more about House Hacking. Its a great and low cost way to get started, and we wouldn't have been able to reach financial independence so quickly any other way. HouseHacking has definitely changed our life for the better!

Hey @Daniel Lambert - you're right, here in Seattle SFH's and Duplexes tend not to cashflow much without value add or other strategies besides just calculating the purchase price, Rentometer amount, and seeing if it pencils. Although not all of our properties here hit the 1% rule, 3 of them did on purchase, so its definitely possible. Rent appreciation is also strong here, so although only 3 of our portfolio hit 1% at purchase, many others have reached 1% through consistant rent growth and appreciation (one of the big benefits of our market). Here's two pieces of advice I wish I knew when I was starting out, depending on where you think you'd like to invest. Feel free to DM me to dive into this a lot more:

1. Outside of Seattle: More traditional strategies work here - think HouseHacking, multifamily rentals, etc. The trick is to find pockets where the rent to price ratio is most favorable - SouthPark, Riverton-Boulevard Park, Renton, Skyway, Kent, and Des Moines are a few to look out for. Downside to this strategy is, as you can see, you tend to have to focus on "less desirable" areas to find good cashflow. Which leads me to my favorite place to invest, which is....

2. Inside Seattle: Everyone on BP loves to hate on Seattle (because of its strict landlord tenant laws) but you can absolutely crush it here with the right strategies. We're talking multiple $100,000's of equity created on the deal, occasional 1% rule or close to it, millions in net worth appreciation, the whole shebang. I'm glad everyone loves to hate investing here (more for me), but if you'd like to explore it here's my advice: don't be lazy. Take advantage of favorable zoning code, specifically ADU's and DADU's, and do value add projects.

If you're househacking (by far the best way to start and grow a portfolio) I would look for single family homes with basement ADU's and more than 4 total bedrooms - the average family size in Seattle is quite small, so the small houses often have more competition and higher prices per square foot than the larger houses, and the larger houses rent for quite a bit more. Buy on a 4,000sqft or larger corner lot or with lot with a back alley to leave yourself the option of building a 1,000sqft DADU now or in the future - if prices keep going up in Seattle your future self will thank you! We shot a video on what we look for to find Seattle properties with great DADu potential here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS403F0Y7RQ&t=12s

Happy to talk more about the strategy and tactics, especially in Seattle as investing here is a bit more complicated than investing in the suburbs. Feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat on the phone or grab a coffee. Cheers!

@Cole Schlack which Island are you on? 

Haven't heard of them or done a deal with them.

Good call @Jeff Si! HouseHacking or renting out the basement is a great idea – it’s the number one way for newer investors to start building wealth in real estate.

1. If you have a property with a second kitchen (ADU or MIL), be aware that 80% or more of those units have been built without permits. Not sure if your basement already has a kitchenette, but make sure you're aware of its permit status if it does.

2. Brush up on building code requirements: in basements you're looking for egress windows that are 5.7 sq feet or more openable (3ft by 3ft casement style windows work best), and ceiling heights 6ft 8 inches or greater (as little as 6 ft 4 inches is ok under ductwork and beams though)

Sounds like your basement would be a home-run to generate some extra rental income - Happy to talk through the details of that strategy with you, just shoot me a DM! Cheers,

@Mragank Yadav there's quite a few investment-focused Realtors on here that know that market and would be willing to help (Myself included!). I think it would help if you filled everyone in on the details of your search a little bit - depending on what you're looking for you'll want to find a Realtor with deep experience in similar properties. Real Estate isn't one size fits all! What are your:
1. Goals: do I want to accumulate more rental properties after this purchase? What do I want this house to do for me and my family, big picture?
2. Timeline: do I have a lease coming up, or other constraints, or am a flexible on timing?
3. Capital: How much am I willing or able to put in as a down payment on a home?
4. Requirements: What are the specific criteria I'm looking for in a house? (bonus points if you're able to rank these by priority! Unless money is no-issue (and it always is) buying a house is a game of compromises, and it helps to have a clear idea of what features are must-haves and what are nice-to-haves.

Depending on your response me and my team would love to help you, or refer you to another agent that is best suited for your goals. Cheers!

@Isaac Bartels my wife was a Civil Engineer and I ran a marketing company before we both became full time Real Estate Agents and started the HouseHack Seattle team. We were able to buy multiple properties in Seattle on those salaries by HouseHacking & Airbnb investing. I pay attention to cashflow & downpayment requirements - Seattle isn't acheiveable for many buyers to put 20% down on a rental property, but may be achievable to put 3% down on a HouseHack. Its still likely $15,000 - $30,000 depending on your area, but as a dual income household saving $15,000 - $30,000 could be achievable pretty quickly! There are also grant programs from the WSHFC (I teach a class for them, let me know if you're interested) that could lower this cash requirement further.

@Isaac Bartels HouseHacking & STR's are two of the most effective beginner strategies in the Seattle area - once you have a couple of properties and know a little more adding BRRRR and DADU / Condoization into the mix will work great as well.

There are a lot of Real Estate Investors in Tacoma and Seattle, and we're out here because its a growing and hugely profitable market to invest in - both from an appreciation and, if using the right strategies, also from a cashflow perspective. Dan and I work together on the HouseHack Seattle team doing these deals daily (I'm on HouseHack #4), so we're happy to share what we know. I'll shoot you a list of properties on the market now that are solid cash-flow househacks in and around Tacoma. I think you'll love Tacoma, but if you land elsewhere good luck wherever life takes you!

I second @William Harvey - flipping in particular, and investing in general, right now is about being very conservative with your numbers and sticking to them. The fact that there are few buyers means that you can just say "next!" when the deal isn't a home run for you, and another deal will come up shortly. Happy Hunting :).