New Member from Seattle WA

[Charles Alexander]

Hello, BP community! My name is Charles Alexander and I'm a mechanical engineer currently living in Seattle, WA where I design automated aerospace manufacturing equipment. Although I'm new to real estate I'm hoping that my analytical skills and creative problem solving experience can be leveraged successfully in this arena, especially with respect to buy-and-hold deals for income replacement. 

Given the cooling but still relatively hot Seattle market I'm especially curious about out of state investing. Seeing people producing tidy cash flows in areas like Indianapolis, Kansas City, or even the Tri-Cities area of Washington has certainly piqued my interest in areas with good cash flow where my savings dollars could potentially go further.

I've recently attended my first local real estate meetup and plan to make a habit of doing so in the hopes of meeting folks with whom I could potentially partner in the future. As someone with some free time and good analytical horsepower who lacks a large sum of capital I'm hoping to connect with experienced out-of-state investors to whom I could provide value in exchange for knowledge and experience and potentially some equity in deals. Looking forward to getting to know this community!

-Charles

[Doug Sipes]

Hi Charles,

Welcome to BP!

As John Barrett pointed out, Everett has a lot going for it. High prices are pushing people out of Seattle. Tacoma/Pierce Co. - which was once considered the place to go for great deals - is now one of the nation's hottest markets as people from the Seattle area were looking to get more for their money by going south. With that, though, Tacoma isn't necessarily much of deal anymore.

There are great prospects up north, however. Marysville (just north of Everett) is experiencing a construction boom of new homes. Ever-expanding commercial flights out of Paine Field are a HUGE plus for the area. Not to mention, the City of Everett is redeveloping a lot of it's downtown core (google "Metro Everett").

A lot of people tend to overlook Everett, but personally I think it's a great place to invest right now to put yourself ahead of the curve. (btw, I know some property owners in downtown Everett that told me they've never had a problem renting at good market rates. (they're looking to sell off market, btw, for anyone out there interested. i'd jump on it myself, only i'm not really in a position to do so... not yet, anyway))