Newbie Introduction Post!

[Bernadette Johnson]

Hey guys! My name is Bernadette and I’m finally introducing myself on BiggerPockets! I’ve been on here for several months now and discussing RE Investing with my man/business partner for well over a year. WE. ARE. DONE! just talking about it! I’ve been reading How To Invest in Real Estate by Josh and Brandon. My partner is reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Flipping Houses by J. Scott. We finally got a hold of someone about a house we have been eye balling for probably year. Still untouched, still very distressed. Windows boarded up and all. We did the skip tracing ourselves (so difficult, any advice on that would be appreciated) but the only working phone number lead us to a property management company. Kind of weird but we were connected to a woman that services our area and the PM company has worked with this family for years and said they would reach out and see if the owner wants to sell. Kind of a weird first actual interaction? But we are hopeful! We have made lots of other calls but either have the wrong number or it’s a disconnected one. I can’t find a skip tracing company that will find phone numbers for specific homes. Only ones that do like a giant chunk of listings and they seem to be random ones. So any advice about that would be great!

We intend to start out flipping homes but then definitely want to do buy and holds and flips. Getting our feet in the door flipping has seemed so challenging I have even wondered if we should just buy a turnkey and rent it out to get us started, but I also recognize we have no idea how to be landlords so that is probably not a wise decision.

I have been hoping to find a mentor but need to put myself out there in our local RE investing community. I’m in Southeast WA state.

Any feedback is welcome! Thanks for reading my long post.

[Jake M.]

Craig Anderson: I don't think all of your opinions about the Walla Walla real estate market are correct. I have friends that own hundreds of units in the area, and since housing supply is so limited and demand so high, the prices for both rent and houses has gotten very high for the area. I have been looking extensively for the last 4 months for a property outside of town with land in the area. Everyone is fleeing the cities for the country with no end in sight. Prices still going higher, and availability is going lower. WA state gov does have emergency order for rental evictions during covid with a few exceptions, such as owner selling house 60 day notice, and owner moving in to occupy rental on 60 day notice. A few other emergency exceptions. The word from landlords that I know is that most renters are paying as usual because who will ever rent to them in the future if they don't. People I know who bought rentals back when they were cheap are considering selling high and buying more rentals in a cheaper market.