All Forum Posts by: Ryan Evans

Seattle condos are considered somewhat unstable by a lot of the real estate people I know around here. Rents for apartments/condos have actually started to decline recently with all the inventory that's come online over the last year. And there are a lot more units that will be finished soon. You're in good shape with the equity you've got, but this might be the point where a lot of people look back and wish they followed the simple buy low and sell high model. 

Selling a couple and putting that in a better cash flowing market might be a good option. 

You could use your next vacation to get out to Phoenix and get more familar with it. Once you know your way around, you should feel a lot more confident pulling the trigger on an investment. 

I flew across the country to buy my first out of state property and felt confident enough after a week to write an offer in the airport cafe on the way home :) 

@Lesley Ray I would love to, but my contact flaked out on me pretty hard on a couple projects and simply never returned my calls before starting any work. I even saw their other projects and thought they did good work, but you never know. Fortunately, I've heard enough stories to not have paid anything up front without seeing progress, but I certainly would not recommend them now. 

Awesome! I think plenty of people could learn from this. Especially Americans are so focused on work that it's easy to forget to enjoy life along the way. You've gotta put the work in, but you can travel the world and have plenty of time to do other things if you make it a priority! 

If you can get something solid then pursue the guy, sure. It's a noble cause to look out for the next person to fall for the trap, but it doesn't sound like you'd have much to go with. And there will always be scammers. 

If all you have are few emails and an address that may or may not be real, your time might be better off going to work and starting to earn that 7k back. It sucks, but chasing a dead end won't help grow your investing business. 

MFR in Tacoma is really competitive right now as there are so many people thinking the same thing as you right now. But you can still find great deals out there if you look hard enough. The area has a lot more upside potential than some of the cities to the north, in my opinion at least!

Once you get a few more properties it might make sense to bring on a PM, but for the building you live in? Nah. If anything that might turn the tenants against you if they already know you own the place and refuse to deal with them. 

You'll find a decent tenant sooner or later and you'll get in the rhythm and then managing 3 units will be a breeze. I might suggest month-to-month leases if you don't have them already. It will be much easier to deal with any potential neighbor issues if you can give notice without having to wait another 10 months! 

As someone with a view of about 20 cranes in South Lake Union right now, I find it absurd to think that 50k Amazon jobs won't have a massive impact on whatever city HQ2 end up in. Those 50k jobs have the potential to create tens of thousands of additional jobs. South Lake Union could be considered a city within Seattle that Amazon half built. 

You'll have tons of construction jobs. Tons of hospitality jobs for all the new restaurants and entertainment that will need to be built to fit the demand of all those high income earners. Tons of partners, consultants, consultants moving there to be next door to Amazon. The list of ancillary jobs that will come along with HQ2 is massive!

@James Wise awesome that you're showing the dark side of owning property out there. A lot of folks only see the returns and don't take into account all the risks and headaches with the lower asset classes. I'm not naive to the fact that I'm doing the textbook version of what not to do as a new investor by buying properties across the country in a lower end market. But I'm also well aware of the risks and I'm prepared (at least I think) to handle them. I likely wouldn't do what I'm doing if I wasn't able to get on a plane any minute and go straighten things out over there as needed. and I keep plenty of cash on hand to deal with the unexpected eviction, sewer backup, and blown furnace that I know I'll have to deal with some day. The midwest isn't definitely isn't for the faint of heart! 

I think there is definitely something to be said for the learning experience of doing a bunch of these projects yourselves. 

But it also sometimes contrasts with the idea of treating it like a strict zero-emotion business. sure, you might be able to save some money by hiring it out. and you might not be 100% satisfied with the finished product. But if the tenants don't care and it's not going to raise your rents then you might be overthinking a little bit. 

I just turned 27, but bought 2 properties last year. I've been an entrepreneur/digital nomad for a couple years and have no chance at getting bank financing. It's held me back in some ways, but it's also really forced me to get out there and get creative. I was able to privately finance my second deal and am working on 2-4 more deals right now without bank financing. 

It's definitely a setback not having bank financing, but if you know deep down that you have what it takes then you'll make it happen either way! 

If anything, keep in mind that you should only take advice from people that you want to be like someday. If people tell you to keep your job, but they aren't financially independent yet, then you might want to look elsewhere for advice.