Help! Need a reliable plumber & electrician, permit q's -King Co.

[Andrea Mas]

Hi All,

First of all I want to offer my profuse gratitude to this community, to BP for their podcasts and wealth of priceless information that got me to move out of my comfort zone in San Francisco to Seattle to get started in Real Estate investing. This website has been my biggest cheerleader, teacher and a profound inspiration. So thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now, on to the background story: I bought my first SFH in March of this year, in Des Moines, WA (just south of SeaTac airport). It's a 1900 sq ft, 3 bed, 2 bath home with a 2-car garage and a partially finished daylight basement. The house was built in 74' and is in pretty good condition, brand new roof, but bad siding. There some wood-rot here and there and could use a bit of a cosmetic face lift. Since we moved in April I have been getting adjusted; new city, job, pretty much new everything. I found a tenant to move in one of the extra rooms and have now refocused on getting the daylight basement converted into a studio apartment with an open layout. It's about 600 sq ft and it's all dry walled, with cement flooring. The plumbing seems pretty accessible, but all new plumbing infrastructure is needed and there's electricity, but we'll need to get a separate breaker box to sustain the kitchen appliances.

I am a total newbie (emphasis added) and my broker told me I could do the whole thing for around 10k. First quote came in at 40k. (YIKES!) I definitely don't have that kind of money laying around. So I'm thinking if I do it in pieces, maybe start with the big things first like plumbing and electrical, then move on to putting some walls in/kitchen cabinets and restroom features that way the cost will be easier to swallow. I'm a W2 employee so I have a steady stream of income and may try to borrow some cash from BOM (Bank of Mom), got that from one of the BP podcasts a long time ago (ha!). I'd really like the whole thing done by the end of the year, if possible. Anyways, here are my questions:

1- Do you know of a reliable plumber in the greater Seattle area who isn't tied up with bigger jobs? (I know, it's summer in Seattle...rehab central)

2- Do you know of a reliable electrician who can help me out?

3- Should I go about registering for permits for the work now? I heard its best to do so before the jobs start? Can you shed any light on the subject of permitting in King County? I guess it would be considered a MIL unit? I'm not really sure.

Any tips/advice would be so greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading this long post!