Noobie from Seattle, WA

[Eric Vo]

Hello BP community.

I'm starting my real estate journey. So far, I've read the Ultimate Beginner's Guide and have listened to a few podcast episodes on my commute.

I'm a medical professional in Seattle, WA. All debt except home mortgage paid off.

Only real estate experience is our current home. Thus far, buy and holds interest me the most; in state or out of state. Looking to buy an investment property within a year. My game plan is to set aside a night a week to read, browse the forums at work daily, and listen to podcasts during my daily commute.

Don't have a network yet, because I still feel too uneducated. But, I have a realtor friend, and a real estate hobbyist lawyer friend.

Thanks for all the upcoming help, and I hope some day to contribute myself.

[Michael Haas]

Definitely possible to cash flow in Seattle, especially on the south end. Its definitely harder to buy off the MLS, but you can get a deal done if you aren't competing with retail homebuyers. To give you an idea of the properties you should be looking at though, here's my last five deals in Seattle, all at 6.5-9% CAP rate:

1. N. Beacon Hill 7 bedroom, extensive cosmetic reno needed

2. West Seattle cabin - structural issues, cash only

3. Judkins Park 3 bed (with an option to make a DADU in the back of the large lot) - added a bathroom, extensive cosmetic renovation, some structural.

4. N. Beacon Hill estate sale (I won't even tell you how many bedrooms this one has, suffice it to say its a lot) - extensive cosmetic, rat infested, some water damage.

5. Admiral neighborhood (West Seattle) View 5 bed - Hoarder house (4 dumpster loads), Estate Sale, Extensive Cosmetic needed

See any patterns? In buy in hold rental investments your friends are - 1. lots of bedrooms 2. absolutely disgusting properties with good bones, and 3. quick sales, especially estate sales or similar. Although most of these were on the MLS, they were the listings with no pictures besides the front door, and they were definitely not professionally staged lol.

PS: You should never count on appreciation as an investor, but at the same time owning 3-5 half million dollar properties and adding 200K to your net worth in those occasional 10%+ appreciation years isn't a bad deal!

PPS: Some of these were cash only properties, so you won't be able to access those deals unless you have the wealth, experience, or network to be trusted with someone else cash. You'll re-fi out of those properties anyway so you do get to re-use the same cash over an over again and/or pay back your line of credit/investors, which definitely helps. 

Cheers and best of luck! Feel free to message me with any specific questions, and definitely keep posting on BP - we're all here to help each other succeed!