All Forum Posts by: Michael Liddicoat

Hello Real Estate Entrepreneur,

I'm the Realtor partner you've been looking for in Central Washington State. I currently have properties available from Yakima to Pasco. I have no properties for sale myself. Instead, I spend my days combing the MLS and knocking on doors looking to bring you deals. This way, I never have to defend a property. I get to look at it from the perspective of you, my buyer. My commissions are paid for by the sellers on every transaction we've done so far.

Why Central Washington?  The Agricultural economy here prevents large spikes and dips in the market.  We have medium returns with consistent growth.  There are diamonds in the rough here.

How does it work? Connect with me through BP and I'll add you to my weekly e-mail. All multi-families are run through the BP rental calculator with all the information provided from the seller. If you like what you see, let me know and we can start examining the deal. Special requests for price range, ROI, and property condition are always available. Tell me what you're looking for and I'll start hunting.

This market has single family, duplex, tri-plex, four-plex, and large multi-tenant and commercial available.

I look forward to helping you grow your portfolio.

I used an online school and was able to spend 7 to 10 hours a day studying. I was able to go from registration to licensed in 2 1/2 weeks. My recommendation on studying may only apply to the Washington state test so be forewarned. I found vocab and math to be the most essential. If you know those two things the application stuff on the national was pretty straight forward. Good luck!

My broker is legally responsible for all deals we do. Washington state requires managing brokers to oversee all agents in their office. The managing broker is liable for all deals and carries insurance for the firm.

I've been seeing sellers list their properties in as is condition on a regular basis. They don't have the money to get it into a condition where underwriters will accept the property.

Since I'm not investing, I can only come at it from a Realtors perspective.  Being able to present your portfolio (when you're ready to sell) and say that you own both parcels with a shared irrigation system does make the deal way more appealing to the buyers I represent.

Topic should have read 2 sellers, 17 units.  That's what I get for doing this at this hour.

Hi BP Team,

I've found a deal, but I need your considerably more advanced expertise.

There is a 17 unit condo development in an upcoming area near our medical university.  Seller 1 is the builder and has 14 of the 17 units.  Seller 2 has the original 3 units.  Seller 1 is putting the 14 together with a monthly income of a little over $18,000 (still waiting for lease list) and his purchase price is $ 2,480,000.  Making his cap rate 7.45% if you account for management, taxes and insurance.  That number isn't bad for my market.  This brings the door price to $ 177,143.

Seller 2 is listing his three at a door price of $ 191,999 for a total of $ 575,997.  This drops his cap rate to 4.77% on the three units.  

So here's where your advice comes in:  How do you persuade seller 2 that he is out of alignment with the value of the properties?  I want to package all 17 for an investor, but seller 2 is really overvalued on the properties. 

One option I had considered was getting the 14 at a fair price and using this to bargain him down.  My concern is that he will have the leverage over a package deal for the whole complex because he now has the three I need to sell the entire property.  All comments and strategies are appreciated.

@Brad Garcia, I'd also be interested in a tool like this.  My local assessor has a tool that is ok.  However, if I could use a tool to find those hidden R-2 properties, it would make for some happy investors.

Hi Sam,

Are these units 2 BD, 2BA or 3 BD, 2BA?  

While I don't own an rentals in our area, the buyers I work with think that your vacancy rate shouldn't be as high as he was experiencing.

Hi @Alex Chin!  

My first metric is always the cap rate.  For most of my buyers this number is their primary figure to see if properties are worth it.  After figuring this, I look at the life expectancy of the roof and HVAC systems.  Expenses I look for when buyers want more information are irrigation shares, water and electric.  In some cases we've also had to consider snow removal and yard maintenance for multi family properties.

Each buyer is different so I look at individual investors when they inquire about properties.  Most use the 1% rule on their income calculations but some will go as high as 2%.  Other investors insist that there be a remodel budget included.

The Yakima market is currently around 90 to 95 percent of capacity with the majority of rentals being under $1,000 a month.  There is a market for rentals in the range of $1,600.