Still accessible opportunities to grow wealth through real estate in the Seattle are?

[Arch Stanton]

Hell

Looking to understand and get advice if there are still accessible opportunities to grow wealth through real estate in the Seattle area (Seattle, Bellevue, Issaquah or beyond).

Objectives:

- De-risk income/wealth from my full time job

- Grow wealth (property appreciation) 

- More cash flow (if possible)

- Have somewhere to stay (myself and family) when I visit (why something like STR/corporate rental would be great - can have a spare few weeks here and there)

I have a couple properties in the Seattle/Bellevue area. Both times I bought and I did a refurb (nothing structural, just new kitchens, bathrooms, moved walls around). One was a foreclosure. Rented one out long term and AirBnB-ed the other. I haven’t bought anything for more than 5 years. I am American, but I moved outside the states a couple years ago, but I expect to start spending more time back in the PNW in the the next few years, and a stretch goal is to be able to accommodate friends and family when they visit, which should be increasingly frequent. I kept meaning to buy for a few years, but I’ve been simply overloaded with a startup.

My current country prevents me from purchasing property (non-citizen), and doesn’t offer fixed rate mortgages - the floating rate is high rate at 7%, and has been about this the last 20 years. One reason I am looking back to my country (USA).

Regarding finances - annual cash income, jointly with spouse, 200-250k. Most of that is from overseas salary - about 1/3 is from my US properties in the Seattle area. Have > 2M equity in existing properties I could maybe tap and enough liquid net worth to make a down payment.

Expecting to put 20% down. I don’t live in the USA all the time (< 1 month last year), so coordinating non-trivial refurb may be awkward, not sure my old handymen etc are going to be available (or suitable) so perhaps something a little more turn key is suitable. I had a quick call with a mortgage broker and they said over the phone a 1M purchase price, 20% should down be OK at a mid-high 6.XX% rate 30 year given my current income and credit (780820). Might be able to squeeze out more. Working to get a mortgage approval letter now. Wouldn’t mind having some higher limits as Redfin/Zillow doesn’t report much good for 1M.

Maybe that means I need to get something that needs more work. A Duplex property or a property with an ADU could be interesting too. Shoot, if I can work with a good realtor I trust, could go the foreclosed route again. How does one access the off-market deals?

Obviously would like to cash flow, but guessing if I can I would need to STR - perhaps AirBnB or corporate rentals, and even then probably would have to be a refurb. As I've been away from some time, I'm not sure if cash flowing is a realistic expectation. Perhaps ROI may only come through appreciation for the near future and I'll have to ‘feed' the property for a few (many?) years until rents increase or I can re-mortgage at a better rate, if we will ever see those kind of rates again.

Also long time lurker and finally joining - I used to frequent this site when I lived and worked in the area years back. Helloooo :)

Thanks