House hacking Seattle

[Daniel Nobile]

Hi everyone I’m new to the forums here. I’m currently active duty In the coast guard and moving to Seattle in June. I’m looking to house hack and live within an hour from Seattle. Just curious to what type of houses people are successfully house hacking single family, multifamily etc? and what areas? Thanks so much! 

[Michael Haas]

@Daniel Nobile - thank you for your service!

Where will you be working around Seattle? There's good house hacks on both the south and the north side of the city, but you have to go a heck-of-a-lot farther north to get cashflow than you have to go south. If you're working close to downtown the south side is definitely the place to be.

We've done 3 house hacks and own 6 rentals. Here's a couple tips for you as you get started:

1. Check the unrelated persons count in any city you're interested in. Seattle allows 8 unrelated persons in a rental house, unincorporated Snohomish County allows 6, but some cities allow as few as 3-4. House hacking financials get significantly stronger as you increase the bed count above 4, or add a ADU or separate dwelling unit.

2. Check whether you can rent an ADU / Mother in law separately, without owner-occupying one of the units. Seattle started allowing this in 2019 and many other cities are following suit, but not all.

2. Set your MLS filters to 5+ bedrooms in the neighborhoods you're interested in. If you don't already have an automated email alert from the MLS send me a message and I'll set one up for you - only a real estate agent can activate and MLS alert for you, but Compass & Redfin have similar alerts as well.

3. Decide how much rehab you're willing to do on a property. The numbers get significantly better around here if you're willing to accept a property in need of some repairs.

4. Be careful of multifamily properties on your first deal - CAP rates for multi's are severely compressed around here right now, and it will be very hard to find good cash-flow. Everett and Tacoma are a bit better than Seattle for Multi-families, but in many markets you're better off buying a large single family (ideally with an ADU / Mother in Law).

Lots of info I know - happy to talk more on the phone or over a coffee once you land in Seattle. Cheers!