All Forum Posts by: Tyler Blackwell

Hi @Erin Caldwell, I can parrot what @Curtis Bidwell mentioned above. Rents are really increasing fast! I'd say the 10-15% number is accurate over a 12-16 month period based on what I've seen here in Olympia.

For example, in the last two years at a rental property (3/2 house, 1450 sf) we have in Lacey we have raised rents from $1400 in early 2016 to $1460 late 2016 and when the tenants move out this week I'm debating on what to rent it, but rental comps on Zillow and Craigslist are around $1550, possibly more! There is very little inventory for rentals, so it's a hot market. I don't do individual showings like I did sometimes in the past. I have an open house one day on the weekend and we get flooded with applications.

It can't last forever, but we're bumping rents everywhere. 

Sounds like a nice deal! How did you find this one, @Julie Kalar?

I'd get a second opinion. Those prices are outrageous. 

This depends greatly on the refinancing lender. I'll be doing this once our cash purchase is refinanced, and I just called a half dozen banks. Some lenders require as much as 12+ months seasoning. Obviously that's not very helpful if you're paying 12% interest on the HML! I did find a good one, though!! I'll be working with a lender (I've used this lender before) that requires no seasoning and lends up to 75% LTV on the appraised value after repair. Try to look for banks that work with investors and that help out with auction refinance purchases. You can do it!

Um...renovations AND holding costs were $10k?! It looks like you did a lot: exterior paint, roof (?), landscaping, fending, kitchen, flooring...what's your secret? Did you do the work yourself? 

As @Anish Patel mentioned, ideally you buy a deal that, after repairs, will have enough equity that you won't have to put any money down. You have to find a bank that will base the refinance amount on the new appraisal (this shouldn't be hard, but you may have to call a few banks). 

Also, it may happen that you miss the mark on your ARV and the property doesn't appraise for what you thought (or the appraiser uses bad comps!!), and you may have to put a little bit down on the loan. Some lenders will only lend 75% LTV on rental properties, so if you have 20% equity in a property after repairs, you'll have to put 5% down. WAY better than 25% if you ask me :)

I think you CAN you Zillow, not from the Zestimate, but you can search for recently sold properties and specify "sold in the last XX days," which is really important in a changing market. You can also dial it in for square footage, bedrooms, lot size, etc. Personally I use Redfin (sorry), but Zillow can be a really useful tool. In my area the Zestimates can be pretty accurate for standard properties.

I'd be intrigued by those numbers. 

Hi Steve! Welcome to BP--I'm a local investor in Olympia as well, so good to know you! Finding deals is getting harder and harder in every corner of the Pacific NW, but there are still good opportunities to be found. As you've probably seen, you can get better rental ratios for smaller communities like Centralia/Chehalis and Shelton and they still have a strong rental market. Do you currently own any investment properties?

Hey Justin,

Good job finding the duplex! I just ran a campaign for 6 months on small multis here in Oly and didn't find anything worth moving on. Glad you snagged one. If it's in Olympia, 178K is a very reasonable/good price for a duplex.)

One question: why do you want to connect to sewer? Is the septic system failing? I guess if it's a rental you have the chance of the septic system being mistreated, but otherwise they just require a little periodic maintenance. 

If you need a good real estate agent, I know one that does a lot of investing on his own and owns dozens of residential properties and some commercial here in Olympia. If you want to go it alone and save yourself 3% or 6%, Cairn's office supply on 4th has a good buy/sell contract that they sell that is specific to the state of Washington. Once you fill it out the title company can help you get things moving.