All Forum Posts by: Heather R.

@Leigh Talbott

Hi Leigh! I am also in the Seattle area, just getting off the ground myself. This is a great community and there is a wealth of information to be found here. Choosing an area to focus on has been difficult for for me as well. Other out of state markets I have researched, and heard from others to be decent, are Indianapolis and Kansas City, MO. Best of luck in the search!

Hi Brian - Have you assigned the contract yet? I am interested and running the numbers now. How confident are you in both the rehab estimates and the ARV? Did you base ARV on comps?

I pre-ordered! Now I am just waiting on lazy Amazon to ship ;)

@James Lusk Thanks James - it is definitely valuable to know investors in your area!

@Wendy Carpenter Wow!! Well... I suppose that was to be expected ;) It does sound like a money pit. And an extreme amount of work to just get it to baseline... It sounds like you are leaning towards no, and I would be too! Flashback to your first SFH?

@George Skidis Thanks George! I passed on this opportunity but this has provided me a huge learning opportunity thanks to all of you. Based on the answers here, I could definitely have raised rents considerably. I could have put in coin op. There were big lockers in the basement that were currently included in the rents; I suppose I could have rented those out for a bit extra as well. Not sure about AirBnB, although I am not opposed to trying it! I just purchased the book on tax strategies by BiggerPockets - I hope to understand a bit more about how I can maximize the tax portion of the equation by reading this. I personally would probably avoid billboards and cell phone towers for curb appeal for my tenants, but I get you larger point - find more income streams! Thank you for your thoughtful feedback!

@Account Closed Thanks Grant! I hope you mean $1500-1800/yr on the fourplex... phew! (I am assuming you do...) 

@Oren K. Wow! This gives me a really good idea of how to estimate this. It looks like you take into consideration square footage which I hadn't really thought about... As a first pass, do you usually just estimate or take an average for that type of home? Or do you use a range? Do you usually assess the remaining life of an item during the due diligence period? Thank you for this detailed breakdown!

@Aaron Nelson I definitely need to develop a better understanding of how to estimate capex expenses for a home. You are definitely right; percentage is not the best way. And even during a first pass could throw off estimates of whether the deal is a good one or not...

@Matt Lefebvre Thanks for the motivation - I am concerned that I am missing out on 'deals' but you are right; mediocre deals would hinder my goals! And the reality is that everything in Tacoma and most of the Seattle area (on the MLS at least!) is going for over what would make it a great deal...