Homebase ideas for future nomads

[Steven V.]

Hey everyone - super happy I found this forum. I'm here to look for advice and potentially connect with someone who can help us with our investment plan.

We're a couple with no kids who are thinking of working remotely for a few years post COVID. Our families are scattered across the world so we'd like to spend some time with them once the situation improves, while keeping Seattle as our homebase. Here's a rough outline of the plan:

* buy a house. either something with a big enough plot of land to build an ADU or anything with a separate entrance and bathroom

* live there until international travel gets back to normal (currently renting in SLU)

* move all our stuff in the ADU, rent the main home, take off

This will give us a place to come back to whenever we feel like it. Goal would be to have the rent cover a decent percentage of the mortgage - we're currently renting so this would be our first property. We're willing to give up our urban lifestyle temporarily and buy outside of Seattle if the prices are better.

Any advice on the best type of property to consider? And potential neighborhoods or cities we should be looking at?

Thanks :) 

[Michael Haas]

@Steven V. my wife and I considered a similar lifestyle a few years back, but with a 18 month old and dogs long term travel is getting harder! 

Your best chance at covering your mortgage with just one of the units rented will be either outside Seattle proper (to the north or south) or South and West Seattle if you're within the city limits. North Seattle is beautiful but hard to find good cashflow, and the East side (Bellevue, Kirkland, etc.) is even worse. 

Do you two have plans for kids in the near future? If your goal is to cover the mortgage with the rented unit, you'll likely want the rented portion (main house) to be quite large and high rent, and your owners quarters (ADU) to be smaller and lower rent / lower cost. The most effective way to do this would be a basement unit, as they tend to cost much less than backyard cottages ($50,000 - $150,000 is a good estimate for a basement unit build, or way less if you throw in sweat equity or cut corners, while a 700+ sq ft backyard cottage will usually cost you $200,000+)

Right now I like Kent/Des Moines (because of the upcoming lightrail stop), Renton & Everett (low prices, good multifamily opportunity), Tacoma (wonderful place to live, few good jobs, but may be revitalized further by upcoming light rail stops and more companies switching to Work From Home), and the Beacon Hill and Hillman City neighborhoods of Seattle. 

Happy to chat more on the phone or over coffee if you're interested. Sounds like an exciting project and lifestyle you two are embarking on!