New Member from Mission Viejo, CA

[Mike Mahan]

Hello, my name is Mike and I am from Mission Viejo, CA.  I have been a landlord for 8 years and have just one rental property right now, in St. George, UT for 1.5 years.  I previously rented out a condo here in SoCal for 6+ years.

I am looking to acquire a rental property in Washington or Oregon that my wife and I will eventually retire to.  That was my thinking for St. George as well, but my wife isn't enthusiastic about the rocks vs. trees kind of area.

Well, things aren't better for me as a buyer now vs. 1.5 years ago that's for sure.  I've found Washington to be more expensive and rent to be low there.  On top of that, Interest rates are higher now and my bank didn't give me a good rate despite my excellent credit.  This makes it hard to buy now to rent.   We would rent the home for say, 10 years before we move in.

So I hope to get smarter about all this as it's not as easy as it once was.  For my condo, I rented it after I moved out until I sold it to diversify out of state.

My initial questions are how to find out if it's feasible in Washington State or Oregon to buy to rent.  I was going to make an offer on a Vancouver, WA house (5 beds on that one) until my own calcs suggested I was going to feed it over $600/mo.  That was not an acceptable cash flow situation.

I'm looking to buy a 3-4 bedroom house with enough land for a garden when we eventually move there.  And if we don't decide to move there ultimately I don't want to be stuck with an albatross house.  It already seems clear to me that maintenance in the NW will be much greater than St. George where it's been close to 0, but that house was built in 2014.  I need to decide what to do with St. George too.  I don't know if I can handle 2 rental properties.  But I only feed it about $100/mo. right now with the property tax increase.  The first 1.5 years I was positive about $50/mo.

Thank you for any initial direction anyone can provide.

Best,

Mike