All Forum Posts by: Scott Ellis

In Spokane, http://maps.spokanecounty.org/ allows you to see a zoning overlay of the city, or search by an address you're evaluating and see current zoning.

My understanding of Spokane is that any SFR can have up to six unrelated adults. My wife and I live in a portion of our house and rent out two rooms to students. I checked with city planning and did not have to do anything special. They were fine with it and we're a zoned residential neighborhood. We could move out and fully rent the SFR to students without issue, but we couldn't convert the house into a duplex. It must remain a SFR with multiple unrelated adults living in it.

Also, in Spokane at least, while they've rezoned a lot of neighborhoods to be only residential, there are still plenty of multifamily properties that were grandfathered in.  I'm in the middle of purchasing a triplex in a residential neighborhood that will be used for graduate student housing.   

Hope this helps a little with Spokane's lay of the land (at least from my own experience.)  

I've LOVED Cozy. It's a free service to collect rent via ACH and manage your units.  We only have three tenants, and not a single one complained about ACH.  Cozy manages the account numbers, so no one can see the other's accounts.  We we loved the most was that the tenants set up auto-draft.  Their payments are on auto-pilot and we haven't had a late or missed payment in over two years.  I think this is because, if they know it's coming out automatically for rent, they make sure the money's there for it; and it's some other bill that gets paid laid if money's tight on a given month. Cozy also allows you to request a one off fees, such as a maintenance bill or if you're splitting any utilities.

It's free for managing tenants and collecting rent.  They make money by integrating paid background checks into the system.  

There are probably better systems if you have dozens of units, but I couldn't be happier with how they've worked out for us.

Depending on what you need done, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Paul Barrach at Bearhill Contracting.  My wife and I could not be happier with him.  He can handle pretty much anything inside the house.  Doesn't do plumbing, electrical, roofing; but has trusted partners for those that we were thrilled with as well.

On our current home, he helped with moving walls and installing necessary support beams, redesigning staircases, custom wood handrails, tiling, linoleum, doors, trim work.

We loved his flexibility.  He listened to what we wanted, helped plan to our budget and then allowed us to pitch in as much as possible to be able to get more done within our budget. We learned so much and view him more as mentor than a contractor.  

He's currently planning two big rehabs for us on the south hill.

Paul Barrach

Hi Bradley, Welcome to BP.  I'm in a similar situation to you but without kids, and I'd LOVE to have your background in architecture and design. I think it'd be worth paying a tax advisor for an hour or two of time to get their take on the implications of either road, but here's my take on it.

Interest rates are still very low and will eventually go up (my parents' first mortgage was at 18%).  Also, with a mortgage, you're paying it back with inflated dollars meaning you're really paying less.  Jason Hartman talks about this a lot.  Here's one of many articles/podcasts of his that discusses this.

If you know you want to end up in REI, why not start now? As with investing in the stock market, I think most investors look back and always say they wished they would have started sooner.  I think having the opportunity to get into it while still in your 20's awesome.

My wife and I spent the last three years remodeling our house as well.  We don't have kids, so we rented out two rooms and lived in a slightly separated basement.  It wasn't always fun, but it was AWESOME living mortgage free.  So I get that.  When we do have kids, our plan is to look for a house that makes sense to build a detached accessory dwelling unit on the property.  Then we could have the benefits of our own house plus some rental income.  I think that would be something to consider with your background.

I also like your plan on multifamily. You could purchase a modest home for you with an FHA, as well as a moderate fourplex and have 5 living spaces locked into 30 yr mortgages at attractive interest rates. (I'm biased here, though, because we put in an offer today on a triplex for this exact reason).

Best of luck and keep us all up to speed on your thought process.  There's lots of young families out there wrestling through these same decisions that will benefit from the discourse.

Welcome Shawn,

If you're new to the site, you're going to love it.  I found it through their podcasts, which are GOLD.  There's so many interviews with investors from all different backgrounds.  It's really great.

I'd also recommend Brandon's books.  There's not a ton in them that you can't learn from the forums, blog, and podcast, but it's really nice having it in one concise place.  I did the audio books and really liked them.  His new book also has a nice section on gurus, their seminars, and their scams.

I'm in a somewhat similar situation as you and would enjoy getting together sometime this spring for coffee.  Welcome to the site and best of luck on your investing.  Happy to help however I can.

I would also stay away from Madison!

And I'll put in a plug to talk with 4 Degrees and @Jordan Tampien

I haven't worked them yet on property management, but I've talked with Jordan's brother, Joel, a partner in the business and a realtor.  Joel was really great.  Very easy to talk to and more than happy to answer questions (even the dumb ones).  After acquiring my next property I'll definitely be talking to them more about property management.

Thanks for the replies.

The two duplexes are exact same footprints.  Taxed assessed at $141K and $143K.  Zillow estimates are at $208K & $210K.

@Upen Patel, I currently own in a house with a conventional mortgage. We're renting several rooms out in it. So our plan would be to fully rent that out, move into one duplex with an FHA and have an additional investment duplex next door with a 30 yr conventional.

@Jeff B., bummer.  Sorry to hear about about your zoning issue.   

I'm looking at a deal that is two duplexes on adjoining lots.  Asking price is $315K for both.

My lender says this would need to be two separate loans as they're separate parcels.

I'm looking at doing one FHA and one conventional.

My question is if there are best practices for how to split the mortgages? Could I do the FHA for, say, $200K; and the conventional at $115K? Putting more into the FHA would mean a lower total down payment.

Also, my lender said he needed to look into it, but wasn't sure you could do FHA if you also own another property within a certain mile range. Anyone know of any restrictions here?

Thanks a lot for any input.

Hi Will,

Welcome. That's exciting to hear about your prospective projects.

I've had a couple  properties in Spokane and am actively looking for a 2-4 unit deal.

Just curious, what part of town is your new construction going in at? I've got a friend who recently finished a 6-unit new construction in West Central.

Good luck with your financing, if I run across good contacts for hard money, I'll send you their info.

Hi @Nik S., it looks like it's been a little over a year since you got this property. 

How are things going?  

This was a really good thread that a lot of people have learned a lot from.