Weekend Visit to Seattle

[C.J. Sandino]

Good Morning Bigger Pockets Forum, 

My name is C.J. Sandino and I am looking to take the first step in my real estate investment journey this weekend during a trip to Seattle, Washington. I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and my goal is to obtain a property out of state with minimal rehab costs that I will be able to rent out with positive cash flow and hold for at least the next ten years. I should mention that I am looking to purchase the property in about 3 months with a price around $300K but a deal is a deal. I will be visiting Seattle for the weekend and since I have heard good things about the area I think it would be a great place to start taking some action in the Real Estate investment area of my life. I consider myself in the education stage still but I was hoping to ask the forums for suggestions on how I can make my trip the most productive. I plan on performing some property analysis this week as well as reaching out to real estate agents in the area to see if I can check out some open houses in the Seattle Area. I was also wondering if anyone has a perspective on if Washington is a investment property friendly state with regards to taxes, eviction, tenant laws, etc. I appreciate any feedback and feel free to let me know if any further information would help you help me. 

Happy Hump Day!

-C.J. 

[Gina Jeannot]

So far everyone has mentioned cities south of Seattle. Take a look at Snohomish County also. We're north of Seattle and have homes under $300k in Everett (which is about 10 miles closer to Seattle than Tacoma), and surrounding areas. I have investment properties in Everett and chose to invest there because:

1. Prices are still affordable (for now).

2. We've seen very high appreciation in the last few years.

3. Rent is high.

4. We have a brand new airport.

5. We've got great employers like Boeing, the Navy and Funko.

6. The city of Everett has big plans to spend $635M over the next few years for a new hotel, new shopping center, new restaurants, 3.5 miles of walking/biking trails, 2 new waterfront parks (one with paddle board rentals), 4 new puget sound viewpoints, an outdoor performing arts venue and 400,000 sq ft of new office space. They hope to have this completed by 2020 and it should drive a lot more people to the area!

Yes, whole Seattle area is tenant friendly but, I thoroughly screen my tenants, set expectations up front and have an iron clad lease, so I haven't personally had any issues with the renters here.

Let me know if I can help with anything else!