New To Seattle Investor! (AirBNB / House Hacker)

[Eric Yu]

Hi all! I just moved to Seattle about 2 months back. I've had a chance to meet folks in WAREI + 10x, but I haven't spent much time on BiggerPockets yet. Just wanted to introduce myself here as well :)

QUICK TLDR; 

- In 2020, started my real estate journey with Airbnb house hacking. Able to net $3k a month for the entire year while paying $0 in rent. 
- Currently have 3 properties (5 units). Mix of Airbnb & Mid Term Rentals. 
- Used to work as an Android Eng. at Instagram. Quit in July 2021 after hitting ~$10k cash flow a month to focus all in on real estate!

WHERE I CAN PROVIDE HELP:

- Have done extensive research on STR markets across the US & can help with due diligence / putting together pro-formas.
- Happy to chat about house hacking, cost segs, bonus depreciation, minimizing tax bills (Note: I am not a financial advisor or tax professional haha)

WHERE I'M LOOKING FOR HELP:

- Really trying to buy an SFH where I can live in & build a DADU out back. Offered twice so far in Ballard and lost on both :( If you have any off market deals, please add me to your buyer's list!

THE LONG STORY
Hiya! My name’s Eric 👋 I’m a Michigan native & after spending 4 years working as an Instagram Software Engineer down in San Francisco, I moved up to Seattle to start a new adventure with my girlfriend, Wanda.

Back in 2020, Wanda and I went on a life planning retreat to discuss our high level goals for the future + how to start executing on them. Our biggest takeaways were 1) Family is #1 & 2) Flexibility of choice is critical (e.g. working a job is a want rather than a need). Working backwards from our dream life expenses, we came up with the goal of hitting $30k of passive income by 2030.

Since then, I've purchased 2 properties & Wanda has purchased 1. Our first property was an Airbnb house hack (living out of a small ADU in the backyard while Airbnb'ing out the main house). Based on an initial cash flow analysis, we were expecting ~$500/month. However, our results wildly surpassed expectations; in the first year, our property averaged $3,000 of net profit per month (consistently above 95th percentile in the market). All of this on top of the fact that we were paying $0 in rent.

In mid-2021, I left Instagram after reaching $10k of passive income per month. I’m now heavily focused in 2 areas: 1) Helping other people recognize their own path toward financial independence through real estate & 2) Learning about real estate development and tackling a build project sometime in 2022 or 2023.

Looking forward to getting to know more of you!