Newbie moving to Oak Harbor, WA

[Monica Zaricor]

Hi Everyone!

I'm an officer in the Navy and I'll be moving to Oak Harbor in a few weeks. I'd like to get into real estate investing so I've been looking around and researching my options. 

My ideal is to buy a multifamily with the VA loan and live in one unit while renting out the others. Then I could eventually move out and keep the property long term. However, as others have mentioned on this forum, there seems to be slim pickings in that area right now (because of the squadrons moving in from Hawaii), especially for a relatively young beginner like me. There is a triplex currently on the market, however I think it is priced such that cash flow would be very minimal. My other option would be to buy a SFR (to live in now and rent in the future), which I think would appreciate well and rent very easily but once again, cash flow would be negligible once you take into account repairs and property management. For instance, based on looking at Redfin a house listed for $150K is renting for $1100 a month. There are also condos available but I'm hesitant about being subject to an HOA.

I don't think I would be able to manage any property myself because my job requires me to be out of the country about half the time. I feel like I'm about a year too late to catch the price increases from the new squadrons moving in and I'm afraid the market is topped out right now. I don't want to get in over my head, especially since I know I will be busy with my job. Any advice would be welcome!

[Spencer OBrien]

@Monica Zaricor

I am a local investor as well. My wife and I own two investment properties in Oak Harbor as well as our primary residence. I will definitely say that the cash flow here will be much lower than other areas at the current time. Both of my properties cash flow well, but that is with a substantial amount of equity in them. The upside comes when the new squadrons come and housing is tight. I plan to liquidate the condo and single family residence I am holding as investment properties at that time. However, I don't think you are too late to the party. Most people can't support two mortgages and thus haven't bought in our market. I believe the price will be between 175-200/ sq ft once the squadrons are here (over the next 3 years). The current prices are 150-165/ sq ft. These numbers do speak more toward SFR's than to multiplexes. I use a property manager for one of my properties here in Oak Harbor and self manage the other. If you need advise on an honest property manager, let me know. I hope this helped a little but if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.