New investor joining BP from Wenatchee, WA

[Joy VanAssche]

Hi, I’m new to BP from Wenatchee, WA.  My husband and I have been custom homebuilders in the Wenatchee valley and surrounding areas for the past 15 years.  We are ready to start investing in or building multi-family units and pursuing waterfront  rentals in the Chelan area.  Our customers are many Seattle area residents building vacation and soon to be retirement homes in our area.  We are ready to start diversifying and going in a multi family direction and looking for others with a similar path.  We’ve owned single family rentals in the past and have had experience in that area as well.   I have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to construction costs and design.

[Steve Vaughan]

Originally posted by @Ian Stuart:

Hi @Joy VanAssche welcome to BP!

Gotta love Chelan and Wenatchee! Wenatchee is an under-appreciated submarket in Eastern WA in my opinion. Average markets are up over 40% since 2010 in Wenatchee / East Wenatchee, vacancy sub-5.00% marketwide, limited rent concessions, and a job market that's added over 12,000 jobs since 2012. Forbes recently named Wenatchee as the #10 Fastest Growing Job Market in the US.... https://www.forbes.com/places/wa/wenatchee/. Plus - multifamily supply growth is relatively stagnant (other than Dean Weidner's new deals near the River) - and skyrocketing single family home prices in the Wenatchee Valley are making high end new multifamily apartments relatively more attractive. 

Reason I can rattle this off - we did the Freddie Mac acquisition financing on the The Rylee Ann Apartments - a 105 unit multifamily deal a few blocks northeast of the Old Wenatchee Bridge (and future Hale Park) in 2019 and have been active in the market over the years.

Let me know if you ever need any market data that would help with your planning (CoStar / Yardi / REIS / Axiometrics / Appraisal), rent/sale/expense comps, entry/exit construction / bridge / takeout planning, or stabilized operating budget assistance. We work with a few institutional developers building in Walla Walla, Tri Cities, Boise ID, Bend OR etc. and frequently get called on to help out with this sort of thing. 

Thanks for letting our little secret out, Ian. LOL   

I could not believe the Rylee Ann (Vince and Lorre's daughter) deal at $199k per unit. Assessed at $7.5M, sells for $21. Even if rents are averaging $1400 each... wth?  Complete insanity IMO.  Can you spell cap rate compression to treasury rates? 

Anyway, cool insights you have.  I don't see these larger MF valuations as being sustainable by any stretch, especially given that 500 additional units are in various stages of development and we aren't silicon valley cranking out IPO insta-millionaires. Our staples are Ag and hydro energy. 

I remember the dark days. It was the Rylee Anne's that were offering 2 months free + a tv to entice renters while my b class rents skyrocketed.  I'll still be here when the music stops and these absentee corporate landlords are looking for chairs.