All Forum Posts by: Phil Wells

The biggest thing I see new investors struggling with is gathering relevant information for their analysis - most assume figures they can't or don't want to put the effort in to find and that assumption ends up being wrong. 

Do endless dry runs when it comes to rental property analysis. Look up actual tax records to find out what the annual taxes are. Call the electricity/water/gas/garbage/sewer people and find out what the real cost is. Get an actual quote for insurance. Scour Craigslist and look up other rental listings to find out what the property could rent for or call a property manager and ask what they think.

In short, never assume. You must know with certainty what your income and expenses will look like otherwise you're relying on luck.

We're seeing excellent appreciation in the Spokane markets - approximately 15%-20% annually - making this market an excellent market to flip, BRRRR, house hack or buy and hold. Rental markets are appreciating slightly slowly but the rental market is strong too.

People are moving to Spokane at a high rate from places like California and the West coast of Washington State where prices are becoming unaffordable. I regularly work with out of town buyers and investors.

Big businesses are increasing their presence in Spokane. Amazon is opening a new distribution center, the Air Force Base is expanding bringing in more jobs and the service members family members, there's even talks of Boeing opening a manufacturing plant here. 

On top of big business small businesses are experiencing a boom in Spokane, there's new breweries, bars and restaurants opening all the time as well as craft industries doing well in Spokane. 

On top of the above Spokane downtown is a real cool place to hang out, the city has great public transport as well as access to nature in every direction. Spokane frequently pops up on national lists, for example, REI lists Spokane as one of the top cities in the USA for outdoors pursuits, Livability.com puts Spokane as one of the top most livable cities in the USA.

Spokane is about to blow up, get in while you can.

Good luck in all your real estate ventures!

Your Realtor is trying to act in your best interests as unexpected expenses do arise after closing and may cost more than you can afford at this time. However, the call is yours to make.

You can take some steps to protect yourself:

- Shop around for a home warranty provider who will cover all the units and their respective appliances and key things such as the furnace/AC unit. Some home warrant providers offer this, some only cover one unit so shop around.

- Budget for a higher capex / maintenance in the first year and set that money aside for emergencies.

- Vet your tenants - look on the forums here for excellent tenant vetting techniques and stick to them (avoid friends and family). 

- Buy in the best neighborhood you can - this helps to ensure an easy resale should you need to exit quickly.

House hacking on an FHA loan can yield amazing cash-on-cash returns and set you up for financial freedom if you start out right. If you rush into it without doing your homework you may end up in difficulty. Protect yourself and do your homework on everything before you make a move!

Good luck!

Hi Danny,

Interview a bunch of agents and find the one that you like and get along with most. You're forming a partnership (not a legal partnership obviously) with this agent for this deal and potentially many deals in the future. If you don't want to grab a beer with them don't hire them!

There is a certain level of competency you should look out for too. Ask them probing questions but remember that a lot of agents don't have all the answers all the time and are still competent - they may just need to look something up or compare recent sales, etc. The real test is if they follow up with you with the info they said they'd give you!

In terms of a buyers representation agreement, in Washington at least, it can be ended by either party at any time for pretty much any reason. It's more a gesture of good faith. In theory it's intended to protect a buyers agent in the event they find a buyer a property and then the buyer offers on the property and cuts the agent out the deal.

I hope this helps

That's quite the roller coaster ride you went through back in 2007. I sincerely hope your future experiences with buy and hold properties as well as flips are a lot more profitable for you!

If there's anything I can do for you or any information you would like don't hesitate to reach out. 

I think it's great that you're self aware enough to even consider this issue. I would argue there is a difference between how you present yourself and owning nice things. 

Being clean shaven, beard trimmed, hair tidy, clothes clean without damage, a smile and a handshake, etc is more important to me than if you drive a nice car. From the perspective of an agent I don't ever want to pull up to an appointment with a mid-to-low income seller in an expensive car and explain to them why they should pay 6% to sell their home. 

I think image was more important in the age of briefcases and pinstriped suits but in todays age of billionaires wearing hoodies and broke people wearing Gucci it's a little less relevant IMHO. 

I would argue that doing what you say you will do when you said you'll do it, being personally well kept, and being polite and courteous is the way to establish a good image and give off a good impression much more so than driving a Porsche.

... says the guy wearing a suit in his profile pic lol - for background I drive a modest 2016 sedan that I have cleaned every week and I gets the job done just fine. My high income clients think it's a clean, business car that racks up miles and my lower income clients think it's just a regular car.

I would say that regardless of what you decide, make sure you have a clearly delineated procedure that everyone is aware of and that you never deviate from, this is business after all. I see 5 days as typical. If you're concerned about late or missed payments in your market consider incentives to make sure payment is received on time, a minor discount, 12 months on time payments = a gift card at Christmas, etc, etc.

Also check your local laws when it comes to fines and specific 'grace periods', you may not have much of a choice in the matter.

Good luck!

He seems like a dependable guy in terms of his payment history and is probably attached to the neighborhood and the house. I'd personally try to incentivize him to clean the property before applying pressure in terms of an eviction - carrot before the stick approach. You could also leverage the potential health risks associated with a dirty unit, vermin, fire hazards, etc, etc.

Having said that I'm sorry to see your property being run down like this, I hope you find a solution that works for both parties.

Thanks for the great information everyone. I'll get that organized and will post a link/details to the event on this thread. 

That's a great response in quite a short space of time, thank you for all your responses.

Can anybody comment on the proposed format? Would people be comfortable presenting on topics and engaging with the group so we can all learn from other insights, mistakes, expertise, etc?

I want to avoid a format where I just talk at a room for an hour and everyone leaves and never comes back!

In terms of timings I was thinking 6-8 or 7-9 on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening - how do people feel about those times?