Suggested REI-friendly areas in Washington State?

[Daniel O.]

Hey folks,

I live in Seattle and therefore am not looking to buy any rental real estate locally. For that reason, I've mostly been doing my research in out-of-state areas like Pittsburgh or The Triangle in North Carolina.

Before I go all the way out of state, however, I wanted to see if there were any good investment opportunities in-state. I'm already doing this the hard way, painstakingly combing through city by city, town by town, looking at gross metrics and trying to dig in. That said, I figured that I might get some good feedback from all of you to save me some trouble or at least help me narrow down the field!

Any of you have any luck getting a good return consistently and with any potential for scale inside Washington State? Where in the state should I start looking? I'm looking for reasonable B+ to C neighborhoods, not warzones, not slumlording opportunities. I'm happy starting out with either SFR or MFR, but would appreciate a market where I can grow into MFR. I'm looking for an area that has solid industry that is not at risk of mass-obsolescence in the next decade. Ideally, I also find an area where tenant laws aren't insanely anti-landlord.

Eager to hear what you think. Thanks!