House Hacking in Washington State

[Pete Perez]

Hello Fellow BPers!

I am a newbie investor from Southern California and have been spending a lot of time reading forums, books, and consuming as many podcasts as I can over the past several months. That preparation has led my fiance and I to want to house hack to get started. 

Here in Southern California I have been able to find plenty of potential properties (3 and 4 plex) that would pencil to zero or very close to zero (not including CapEx, vacancies, etc). But it would definitely be a better scenario than having a single family mortgage for the next several years and trying to save that way.

However, life has thrown us a curve ball recently. My fiance was accepted to University of Washington in Seattle and her program is fully funded. So we will be moving there in early September. Our goals remain the same, but we are not familiar with that market as we didn't grow up there. I have started looking in areas for multi family homes. I am trying to learn as much about the area as possible. 

Are there any investors in that area that can make any recommendations on which areas to look into? Also, is it difficult in that area to find renters? Here in SoCal it is pretty easy to find renters since the population is so dense.  

Thanks everyone! 

Keywords:

• King County
• Snohomish County
• Pierce County

[Alex Chin]

@Pete Perez - well first off, congratulations to your fiance for her acceptance and fully funded status. Great accomplishment there, it is a beautiful campus and my alma mater. I believe your options will, like so many plans, have to depend on your budget to a large extent.

Near the UW, and in the neighborhoods of Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford that are nearby, you're looking at housing prices that verge on Bay Area madness. Do not expect to cash-flow, I wouldn't even really expect to break even on a house hack in those areas.

Light Rail just finished a connection to the UW that I believe you should consider taking advantage of. Look up a map of Light Rail stations and begin your search in those areas. Especially in the blue-collar Rainier Valley, there are still reasonably priced options for a house-hack and they have been steadily appreciating in value. It is more than possible to commute to the university without using a car, in fact, due to pretty horrendous rush hour traffic, I would strongly advise against trying to regularly commute via car.

Do not limit yourself to searching only for 4-plexes, consider purchasing a large house with multiple bedrooms and renting those out as well.

I live on Beacon Hill which is no longer reasonably priced, but I am happy to answer any questions you have about Seattle. I am sure other locals will chime in as well.