All Forum Posts by: Christian Wathne

In Seattle over the next two years you have Facebook doubling their Seattle area head count, Microsoft is opening their new bigger campus, Amazon has a couple more office buildings that will be completed and Google is taking over additional office space....along with a bunch of smaller growing companies continuing to expand and bring in high paid talent.

I would do anything I could to not sell the Seattle property. No doubt LA will always be a great investment, but I really would not want to sell a single family house in Seattle. New construction in the area is geared mostly towards multi family units. Houses will only become more and more desirable to a group of people who's incomes are going up very quickly. 

Hi Everyone, 

I have a very good condition (full gut renovation 5 yrs ago) single family house (4br/2ba) in a prime area of the west coast. I was in a hurry when originally renting and ended up renting the house to 3 young professional friends who all kept the house in great shape over the last 2 years. 

Fast forward to now, 2 of the 3 tenants are wanting to end the lease at the end of the term and not renew, while the remaining 1 wants to stay and find 1 new roommate to share the house with (so there would be 2 roommates at this 1 house). 

The tenant who wants to stay has been my main point of contact over the last two years and has been a really great tenant. 

.....question I have is.....do I want to not renew, and instead find a single family to rent to so I don't have to deal with multiple people moving in/out in the future and/or have to deal with other roommate situation problems, or should I allow this tenant to renew? Anybody have experience with this type of situation? 

Bay Area will always be one of the most desirable places in the world to live and people with lot of money will keep buying and spending. I wouldn’t count on similar appreciation over the next 5 years as we’ve seen over the past 5, but long term as long as you can weather the ups and downs, Bay Area will always be a good place to park your money Also note the location of people posting responses. You’ll notice very different investment philosophies based on where people are from. Taking advice from someone from Ohio would mean selling a Palo Alto house in the 1980’s because it was overpriced and certainly wouldn’t keep going up.

@Eric G. thats a good suggestion. I'm not local but do travel to the area for work every 3-4 weeks and I have a friend/handyman who could swing by. Also, I have the landscape maintenance done every 2 weeks so would get updates from the landscaper. 

@Bill B. @Mike Cumbie; good call on the insurance, I'll check on that

Hi everyone, hoping to get your input on a rental situation that’s new to me I have a single family property a in a B class neighborhood that I hire out the landscape maintenance. Tenant is a foreign business person living in the US and has notified me that they will be leaving the home vacant for 3 months to travel and is asking if that’s ok; also would like to sign another year lease (lease expires during travel time). So they want to extend the lease but let it be vacant for a few months. What are your thoughts regarding allowing a house to be left unoccupied for 3 months? Any advice is appreciated.

Originally posted by @Thomas S.:

I would set up a meeting with the remaining motel owner and see if he will agree to the both of you matching prices so that you are then competing only based on the units you are offering.

You could then refer customers to each other when you are full up.

Endless business opportunities if you are both willing to co-operate.

 This is called price fixing and is very illegal and can be prosecuted as a criminal federal offense under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act

I’d be more interested in additional pieces of data to go along with the number of hours of sleep. ie, #hours if sleep, happiness, income, # deals being added in last 12 months, total number of units, etc etc

no questions; you must add a shower

to get a value just look at comps. Also know that most buyers & renters will simply immediately cross off a 1 shower house. 

What area of seattle is this property?

Generally the more complex an investment is the bigger of a scam it is. Want to invest in crypto? Invest in crypto Want to invest in RE? Invest in RE

Many people thought that the Bay Area was over valued in the 90's and sold....that was a great decision. 

Like others have said, its supply and demand; as seen below; inventory is at its lowest point in the last 20yrs

Quantity of closed sales are pretty high.....

you put the above 2 together and you get record high prices...

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Things that could put downward pressure on prices are inventory picking up, interest rates going up, hiring in the area slowing. 

I think long term seattle has nowhere to go but up; its attracting high paid people to an area that's geographically constrained in terms of where houses can be built.