Newbie Washington state.

[Robert Spears]

Hi, one and all! 

My name is Robert Spears, my beautiful wife, Jasmine, and I live in the Seattle, WA area. I grew up in Auburn WA and my wife in Tacoma WA. We are looking into rental properties in the Tacoma area mostly and a few other areas and I have been trying to do my due diligence in researching and learning first before starting to buy. I have had interest in real estate for a long time and had opportunities here and there but it had never been the right time. After talking with people here and there I've heard about bigger pockets and started to look into the awesome community here but was a bit intimidated at first, never really committing to starting anything. Now that me and my wife are starting to prepare to buy our first place and stop renting I have started with listening to podcasts, reading books, like rich dad poor dad, and trying to get a finical plan going to get us ready for investing! 

I currently am employed as a drywall finisher in the union. I have done drywall in and out side of the union. I have experience with residential as well as commercial drywall. I have loved buildings and always wanted to have my own house but now I want more then just my own house! 

I am excited to start to be apart of the community here on BP and a little overwhelmed but one step at a time! I do have a newbie question of where I should look for community here in WA and where I should start finding a team to help me and my wife buy our first rental property? 

[Brian Hughes]

Hi Robert.   I'm based in Seattle and I just recently joined as well.    I've been gradually and conservatively building my rental portfolio in Seattle and more recently, Burien for a bit over ten years now,  I've got 3 properties and 8 rented units.    I'm no expert in anything,  but a couple of thoughts.   Sounds like with your skill set and connections to the construction trade you are well positioned to get something needing a little rehab,  which might help you get something with a bit less competition and build some sweat equity.    

If you are familiar with south king county area it might make sense to consider looking for rentals around there. Puyallup through Tacoma would keep you busy. IMO 2-4 units are the best to start with; SFR's don't come with built-in supervision in the form of multiple tenants and are either 100% full or 100% vacant. Often 2-4 units don't cost much more than SFR's of similar age/size/condition/style/location, can be acquired with residential financing (possibly no need for "creative" financing, and qualifying for which can include a portion of expected rent income), and especially if its your first property of any kind you could live in one unit and fixup/rent the other units to get several benefits going at once. One rule I think would be good for selecting a first property is if you would be willing to live there yourself, even if it isn't the plan. I'm not talking so much about unit size and quality/type of finishes or even the condition (as long as its financible and rentable from nearly day 1; and presuming you will be improving as needed) but about neighborhood quality, and quality of the existing tenants and prospective tenant pool. Buildings can be fixed, but location can't be changed and people issues can be intractable.

In Seattle proper right now with the recent spate of rental regulations,  a hostile city council threatening more,  and very low inventory in investment properties and with what little is on the market often advertised well below 5% cap,  I'm not sure now is a good time to try to get into the Seattle market unless your strategy accounts for all those things;  tough sell for buy and hold.   Maybe not for other strategies, and clearly from the apparent continued demand not everybody agrees with me.