Could use some advice and make some contacts in WA

[Michael Hood]

Hi there,

I'm new to BP and also new to everything Real Estate. Hoping to make some friends & contacts and also learn as much as I can about it all. Seems like I'm in the right place so far!

I would really appreciate any advice & wisdom I can get on this project I'm dealing with now.

A family member is going to sell her SFH in California that was put into rental service over 6 years ago. Sell price will probably be around 1million, net around 725,000 and would have a ridiculous heart popping CG tax. So 1031 to the rescue. I've learned a ton about it (thanks Bill Exeter!) Here's where I need the help:

She has great credit but currently makes little income as the renters have left in preparation for selling the house. I want her to have enough multi-unit properties/cash flow to not have to worry so much with better redundancy and newer properties etc. 

Questions: 

Where would be a good place to invest long term? I was thinking Washington State (Seattle or Vancouver suburbs) since it would have no state CG tax and it's not too far from Portland where I am. If that's a good idea, are there any RE Brokers on BP here keen on this kind of investment? How about Property managers?

Would it be possible to get enough loans to cover the 375K or so using the income of the future properties along with that massive cash down payment?  One lender I talked to said they will only consider the income of her current property for the last two years (doesn't make sense to me since that property will be sold so that income won't be there anymore!?) and not the property she would exchange into.  

Another thing we are considering is using a portion of the sale to invest a percentage in a SFH here in Oregon that my I can live in and then pay her rent appropriate to the percentage she invests in, and I can use her deposit to cover the 20%+ needed for the loan to drop the PMI. Will this work with lenders or is this too crazy?

Wow sorry for the long first post...

Cheers,

Mike