Introductions, Networking, and Advice

[Henry Shen]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the BiggerPockets community yet I have been surveying the Seattle market for a little bit over a year now. I am originally from the Bay Area but moved to Boston for my undergraduate studies. I am now working in Seattle (SLU) at Amazon Web Services as a high-tech salesperson and currently reside in Capitol Hill.

I wanted to introduce myself and network with other local rental property investors (anyone really). After reading a few forum posts about the Seattle market and seeing a few MLS listings for multi-family homes, it seems like people are recommending to buy properties out of Seattle proper due to strict regulations for renters and price increases.

I was originally looking in areas such as Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford, Greenlake because of the influx of technology employees such as myself but it seems that majority of these areas have increased prices and strict regulations. The increase of prices and talks of strict regulations make these areas not so much attractive to me after learning about them. Is it still recommended to look in these areas if I am looking to invest in multi-family properties?

It seems that people on this forum are looking areas such as Tacoma, Renton, and Bothell, areas that are 20-30 minutes out of Seattle proper. I guess I am trying to figure out what my exact gameplan is because I originally wanted to invest in areas where technology workers reside but it doesn't seem too attractive after learning about the details mentioned above. If I invest in areas outside of Seattle proper, I could still make a positive return but that wouldn't adhere to my original gameplan.

Any insights would be appreciated and feel free to PM me an introduction! Looking forward to meeting everyone.