Looking to move to Seattle area and buy my first investment property

[Marcus Nielson]

This is my first forum post other than my initial introduction so I'm looking forward to reading the comments!

My wife and I currently own a town house in Mesa, AZ. We bought it at the bottom of the market and our plan when we bought it was to someday use it as a rental after we have lived in it for a few years. Well it has been a few years and we want to move out of state, hopefully to the Seattle area to get away from the heat and dryness. There are two major problems I see with this though. First is that housing prices are significantly higher in Seattle than where we currently live so we won't have many options. Secondly, we both are from Arizona and our families are very established here. This has led me to believe that the smartest thing to do from an investing stand point would be to stay in AZ because I know the area and making business connections would be easier. 

However, a strategy I thought of recently would be to buy a multi-family in the Seattle area using FHA financing (we don't have a lot of money saved for a down payment) and then rent out our town house in AZ as well as the other part(s) of the multi-family. This would give us at least 2 rentals right off the bat. It seems to me like a good way to kick off my investing and create some cash-flow while at the same time subsidizing the cost of living in Seattle. Anyone see any problems I might not be realizing with this plan? Does it sound like a smart way to get started? Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!

[Zach Schwarzmiller]

Snohomish, WA. Purchase Price : $426,800 and I put 3.5% down. When I bought it gross rents were $3,000 within 1 year (when I was able to move out) I had gross rents at $4,200. If I put in my taxes, insurance, repairs, reserves, debt service (including PMI), etc I cash flow $400/month with only 3.5% down locked into a 30 year rate at 3.3% - it's a beautiful thing. I syndicated money to buy the triplex next-door and have ownership / collect management fee on that and then also purchased the house next to that all within 1 year and not spending much of my own money. Love it!