Investors from Seattle area

[Nick He]

Hello everybody!

I am so excited of joining the BP forum! My name is Nick.

I am 100% made in China. I never thought that I will be doing real estate investment. I remember seeing the Chinese real estate market booming when I was attending college and working in Shanghai in early 2000. Stupid me at the time - I have not invested any... My cousin on the other side is one successful story from the crazy rise. She and her husband bought 16 condos in Shanghai from 2000 to 2010.

After moved to Seattle in 2009, I bought my first house. I met my partner in 2010 and we have been slowing investing in real estate since. We normally buy 1-2 houses a year and hold them. Cash flow is what we target the most. Potential appreciation is second. So far, our rental income is way higher than the mortgage.

We do hope real estate investment will be a way to financial freedom. I would love to learn from all the experts on the forum and also share the experience that we have.

I would love to learn more in the following two areas:

1. Building town houses in the back yard of our properties in the city. One family friend who has been a season investor from Hawaii told us that we should try to get the plan and permit now and wait for the next down cycle to build because of the high building cost. We are still in the thinking phase, so I look forward to learn everything about new build.

2. Learn and potentially enter commercial real estate. We have been mostly investing in SFH, Duplex, and 4-plex. We always heard that commercial properties will generate better return. We plan to learn how to evaluate good commercial properties and get the loan smoothly too.

Thank you so much for reading through the post. I am looking forward to get to know everybody here! Have a wonderful day!

Best,
Nick