All Forum Posts by: Alex Chin

I would also discuss with the seller and let them know that as a condition of purchase, your chosen unit must be vacated so that you can live there. At that point, how they clear the unit is up to them.

An alternative would be getting copies of the lease and seeing if the tenants of your preferred unit have let their lease lapse and are now on month-to-month. If they are, you will need to give them at least 20 days notice I believe, possibly more in Seattle.

@Erica Post - I would definitely listen to what @Ryland Taniguchi has to say on this subject, he is a lot more plugged into the market than I am, although he also operates at a scale that gets him better pricing/contractor responsiveness than others.

I tend to agree with @Andrew Syrios, it's not good practice to adhere too tightly to 1% or 2% rules, however I do think they're good for sweeping through a large list of potential properties and eliminating ones that just won't pencil out. Until you drill down into the numbers though, you can't really say that a property is going to cashflow, even if it meets the 2%, 3%, whatever rule.

I like the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma, as well as some parts of Des Moines right now, the planned Light Rail station opening up in about 5yrs. is really gonna be a game changer for that area.

Good afternoon @Eamon Conheady, and welcome to the site.

If it's networking resources you're looking for, I would recommend contacting @Troy Fisher, @Tiffany Plovie, and @Kelsy Soderlund. They run the Kirkland, Seattle, and Tacoma meet-ups respectively, and given the once-per-month meetings you will definitely meet someone who can answer questions you have.

@Erica Post - I would recommend getting ahold of J. Scott's book on flipping, he does a good job of breaking down many of the steps and processes that an investor needs to go through in order to finish out a successful flip.

For estimating materials, homewyse dot com has been a good resource for me for the Puget Sound area.

@Pete Perez - Yes, I have a private lender who is fronting the purchase price and I will be looking to refinance on the back end to get the loan paid back, ideally before the end of the year to minimize my holding costs. I do have a provision in place for an extra 3 months if need be, although I am obviously hoping it doesn't come to that.

I like the Hilltop neighborhood myself. In the process of picking up a duplex for $143K that should rent for at least ~$800/unit.

I plan to keep investing in the area for the forseeable future as I think it has a lot of long term potential.

@Albert Zheng - I tend to lean towards @Andrew Syrios' way of thinking here. The Seattle market is redhot and the rents you're getting will only barely be covering your mortgage-maintenance. If you are leaning towards holding, maybe just wait another 9 months until we hit the summer hot market, put it out there and see what the response is.

If there is no intention to move back to the area, then the funds from the sale can either take your family on a nice vacation, or be reinvested into another property. Since you're already acting as a long-distance landlord, I would expect you'd be comfortable doing so again.

@Pete Perez - I won't have much time during normal business hours, gotta keep that W-2 income flowing after all, but I would be open to coffee or lunch on the weekend, just let me know and we can try to set something up.

At the Lakewood, Seattle, and Kirkland meet ups that @Kelsy Soderlund, @Tiffany Plovie, and @Troy Fisher run, there area few other members who run outside groups that will also make quick pitches. Definitely worth a couple visits!