All Forum Posts by: Jim Doyle

 Thanks @Brandon Vukelich, I'm planning on putting 10% down on any property that I purchase in the Seattle Area. I have heard from other landlords that the Seattle laws are not landlord friendly, so that is some good insight. I haven't looked for homes with ADU or DADU's yet; but I remember looking to purchase ADU's or DADU's when I was initially looking for a SF or Townhome in Seattle, and they were still well north of $500k for less thank 1000 SF; in general it seems very cost prohibitive for newbies to invest in the Puget Sound Region, which is a bummer. I think I missed the boat in the last couple of years with the astronomical appreciation that our region has experienced, I will be curious to see where the dust settles in 2023 with home prices; I assume they will depreciate, but not by much.

Hello, I'm looking to purchase my first home in the Seattle area market and understand with the expensive market that I'm in it would be hard to cash flow a property after I move out after 1 year. The intent in living there would be to lower the amount of money that I'm currently paying in rent to myself and be able to take advantage of the FHA loan for a primary residence within the duplex. My question is are there any markets that would be considered slightly undervalued or would provide me with the best opportunity to cashflow after 1 or 2 years. I'd consider most markets, but wouldn't move to Tacoma as my girlfriend is not a fan. We're both outdoorsy and actually like Bellingham a lot, so wonder if anyone has any experience up there as well?

Thanks Allan, In Seattle a mortgage, depending on your down payment and house costs will more than likely be thousands of dollars, in my case $4,600 with expenses; It's much harder to cash flow as the rents don't come nearly as close to offset the high mortgage costs. 

Hi All,

I’m looking to purchase my first duplex in the Seattle WA area and started to use the Bigger Pockets calculator to run some numbers. The intention would be to have a house hack in the Seattle Market, I will be purchasing the house itself; my girlfriend and I will live in one side of the house and then have a renter in the other side.

House I'm considering is $600k; I'm looking to put down 10% and have $10k for closing costs. I've calculated Vacancy Rates and CapEx at 10% per month and included property taxes, etc. that the calculator accounts for in the tool.

I was using the "Rental Home" calculator on the site, which I think would be the best option, correct me if I'm wrong? From a rental income component, I just included the assumed monthly rent of $1,500 from the side that we would be renting out as the other portion would be my side of the mortgage. The monthly expenses for the house is coming in at $4,626 per month and with rental income of $1,500 that leaves a negative balance of -$3,126. In order to get a more accurate CoC return and breakdown should I be assuming what the house would bring in if both sides were rented? Is that the best way to determine the ROI? The intent would be to live in the house for a year and make small cosmetic updates as needed and then move out into the next duplex.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, if anyone has some househack calculations that they’ve run in the past and would be willing to share, I’d love to see. Thanks!

@Allen Tracy - In the last 3 years, how much have you been able to increase your rent costs to mitigate the turn costs? Are you increasing the rents on the properties at all when you turn them over or there's not much wiggle room to do so? I assume in Columbus the majority of your tenants are part of OSU? Is that what is driving the turnovers? 

@Aj Parikh - I would also love to get your experience with investing in Cleveland as I went to school in Ohio and still have a large network there, an out of state investment there has been top of mind for me.

@Obed - The opportunity to use IRS Section 121 is relevant for any type of property correct? Is that the rule of thumb that you must live in a property for 2 years to avoid the capital gains tax?