All Forum Posts by: Henry Shen

Hello,

If both options were presented to purchase all cash or finance for a SFR, what would be the differentiating factors between the two financing options? I'm curious as to what factors make other people choose to go all-cash or with a loan.

The only one I can think of is opportunity cost of the cash investment meaning that if you invested in rental properties and had a positive cash flow, then you are potentially missing out on other investments if you choose to go all-cash.

@Jeff San Nicolas

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for responding! Makes sense as a lot of the value within these SFR in King County is from appreciation.

@Yunning Lee 

Hi Rachel,

I should have clarified that I looked at cap rates on average on the web which was very broad. After cleaning up my numbers and talking to others, it was clear that SFR in these areas have a huge value in the appreciation rather than the cap rate.

Best,

Henry

Hi All!

I'm currently doing some cash flow analysis on a few properties I am interested in. I tried looking up average capitalization rates for the Seattle area and the neighborhoods I am interested in but I found numbers ranging from 5-12%. Does anyone have an idea of what a good "cap rate" is for a single family residential in Seattle proper? More specifically areas like Magnolia, Queen Anne?

Best,

Henry

@Chris Taylor

Hi Chris,

I saw that you decided not to offer for this property but I had a few questions since I am analyzing a few multi-family properties in the PNW area. You mentioned that you used actual expense numbers for monthly expenses ($1,716.38) but I noticed that you also had a section that had a 50% rule for expenses (1097.50) + mortgage/interest payments of (599.55) = 1697.05. Trying to get some clarification on the discrepancy of numbers. 

Other than that, great analysis and great feedback from people.

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the BiggerPockets community yet I have been surveying the Seattle market for a little bit over a year now. I am originally from the Bay Area but moved to Boston for my undergraduate studies. I am now working in Seattle (SLU) at Amazon Web Services as a high-tech salesperson and currently reside in Capitol Hill.

I wanted to introduce myself and network with other local rental property investors (anyone really). After reading a few forum posts about the Seattle market and seeing a few MLS listings for multi-family homes, it seems like people are recommending to buy properties out of Seattle proper due to strict regulations for renters and price increases.

I was originally looking in areas such as Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford, Greenlake because of the influx of technology employees such as myself but it seems that majority of these areas have increased prices and strict regulations. The increase of prices and talks of strict regulations make these areas not so much attractive to me after learning about them. Is it still recommended to look in these areas if I am looking to invest in multi-family properties?

It seems that people on this forum are looking areas such as Tacoma, Renton, and Bothell, areas that are 20-30 minutes out of Seattle proper. I guess I am trying to figure out what my exact gameplan is because I originally wanted to invest in areas where technology workers reside but it doesn't seem too attractive after learning about the details mentioned above. If I invest in areas outside of Seattle proper, I could still make a positive return but that wouldn't adhere to my original gameplan.

Any insights would be appreciated and feel free to PM me an introduction! Looking forward to meeting everyone.