All Forum Posts by: Corey R.

Welcome to the Seattle market.  Don’t forget to add an escalator clause to your offer as well!

@Lam Dinh  Hi Lam, yes we have a 2 car garage which we will be using.  There's a driveway up to the garage (side of the house) so it'd be a logistical nightmare if we shared the garage with the tenant so we are keeping it to ourselves.  We have parking out in front of our house (off street) which the tenant will be able to use.  

I guess my main question is, I want to be picky about who we have living in the MIL as we have a small child.  I'd prefer to have a single female vs a family or male and just wondering if it's okay to advertise and filter out for a single female.

Stay away from West Seattle...please leave it all to me!

Hi all,

We just purchased a home with a MIL unit (located downstairs) in the daylight basement.  There is a main living area above ground (where my wife, son and I will be living).  The MIL has its own separate entrance, however, there is a laundry room located in the MIL as well.  We are planning to utilize the laundry room as a shared laundry.  Luckily the laundry room is in the corner and we are building a wall with a shared hall to the laundry room where both living spaces will be able to access the laundry room.  We will have our own entrance (with lock on door) and the MIL will have it's own separate entrance (with lock on door as well) joined by a hallway connecting both living spaces to the laundry room.  Utilities are all on one meter so we will be including electric, water, cable and internet in the monthly rent.  

Any tips on renting a MIL unit when you are the primary home owner living in the house?  We are located in unincorporated King County (Seattle address, but just outside the city limits) so we aren't strapped by the City of Seattle landlord/tenant laws.  I'm wondering if there are different rental laws for MIL units or is it the same as all rentals?  Is it recommended to do a regular lease agreement?

Thanks,

Corey

Hi Lennox,

I live in West Seattle and own a townhouse (purchased in 2013) and a SFR we just purchased and are currently living in. Our townhouse is in the Westwood Village area (south area of West Seattle) and our new home is a little bit further south in White Center. White Center is just outside the city limits of Seattle and considered unincorporated. There's rumor that Seattle is going to eat up White Center and annex it within the next year. White Center has come along way in the past 2 years and I would say as far as home prices go it's still somewhat affordable to purchase a home in. It may not be for everyone but we like it! Our townhouse is cashflowing just over $1,000/mth and our new home has a MIL which we plan to rent out soon which will make our out-of-pocket close to $0/mth for our mortgage. Hoping to find another house in the next year and continue the trend :)

I'd suggest driving all over the area you want to target and reach out directly to those homeowners.  Who knows, you may just get someone who is interested in selling.

- Corey

"The new law requires landlords to rent their housing units to qualified applicants on a first-come, first-served basis."  

The keyword here is "qualified"...you can make up some pretty "unique" qualifications to get around this.  One we use is must not be more than 5 minutes late to a property tour or early, if so you don't meet the minimum requirements and we can pass on the applicant.  We also have a qualification for the application, once we hand/email you the application you have 24 hours to return/email it to us.  If you don't return the application within 24 hours then you don't meet the minimum requirement.  We have a 3x the rent income qualification as well and when we are renting our townhouse out for $2,500+ per month that weeds out a lot of people.  Then there is the background check, credit check, and rental history.  No criminal records, no late payments on credit check, great rental history etc.  So, it's not AS bad as some may think...

Nice work Mario!  Did you do any of the work yourself or hire it out mostly?  It looks like it was a full interior gut for the most part?  That pressure washing sure made a difference on the exterior.  Did you just paint the brick and not the upper siding?  I'm going to stay tuned :)

Grant Fosheim Yeah, did some searching and noticed it was on Loopnet back in 2016 and also 2015. Do you think mid to high 5's for a cap rate on that deal? I'd have to get it for the right price for sure...

@Account Closed Thanks for the response.  The deal i'm looking at is 22 units and it's 100% occupied at the moment.  For mgmt expenses are you talking about mgmt fee?  I'm looking at a 6% mgmt fee.  Currently the broker is showing expenses at 34%, however after looking at financials it's really more at 50%.  For repair/capex i'm budgeting $201,140 ($9,143/unit). 

Hi,

I'm looking at multifamily deals in the Everett, WA area and wondering what the current cap rate in this area is. Looking at value-add apartments built in the 1970's-1990's. Is Everett a low 5% cap rate area or higher? Any advice at all would be great.

Thanks,

Corey