Tacoma Market for Buy-and-Hold Investments

[Brendon Stewart]

(reposting this to the Tacoma Real Estate Forum)

Hey All - I'm a noob from Seattle looking at Tacoma for my first RE investment.

Anybody will to share tips on neighborhoods / strategies where you are seeing success?

I have focused my research on buy-and-hold SFRs in what I would consider B neighborhoods (UPS, Proctor) and B-/C+ (neighborhoods surrounding the International district) neighborhoods.

Based on MLS listings I am finding rent-price ratios in the 0.6% - 0.7% range, which is slightly above what I see in the Seattle market. Given the low price of homes relative to Seattle, however, Tacoma seems like a reasonable entry point for a new investor.

I'd also welcome any alternative views to challenge my current thinking! I've read through the forums for Seattle / Tacoma / surrounding areas and there is a ton of great info out there - thanks for all those who are sharing!

[Pete Perez]

@Brendon Stewart

Tacoma works for rentals. Lots of people I meet at meetups have rentals there. My wife and I have spent a couple Saturdays just driving around various areas getting familiar. It helps a lot to go and actually see the areas. We keep google maps up on the dash of the car. So we can commit the area to memory. That has helped us form our opinions on where to stay away from. We are working on our first deal in Tacoma.