All Forum Posts by: Lauren Dilly

Rents were $4225 for all units when we looked at it, in Feb maybe? Long-time tenants in 2-3 of the units.

David Sweeney I walked through this property when it was on the market last winter. The units are big and it seemed well managed but they have not been renovated recently. Old carpet, wood paneling and at least one floor had a slope to it. It was on the market a long time and they even dropped the price by $10k if I'm remembering correctly. We thought it had finally sold but now it's back on the market at the original price. We ran the numbers on it last winter and it only made good sense at $475k or less. I'll see if still have the spreadsheet for it so you can see what we had in there for expenses.

Hi Marcia! I thoroughly enjoyed your podcast and have been meaning to connect with you. I bought the house in May 2010 to live in forever and then met the love of my life 7 months later. Isn't that how it always happens? I moved to Wenatchee in September of 2012 so this September will be the end of the 2 of 5 yrs. use test or whatever it's called for capital gain taxes. I'm losing money on it because I've been under-renting it (rookie move) at $1400. I see now via Craiglist that I could get $1800 a month, which would mean $250-300 cash flow each month. My renters up and signed a new lease elsewhere when I told them I needed to sell it by September 30, so I could actually re-rent it for March 1 at the higher rent.

Depending on what the realtors come back with for a realistic sales price (and what we estimate to net from it), we may choose to hang onto it for a few more years and then do a 1031. With good renters, the distance between Wenatchee and West Seattle shouldn't matter much. The thing is that we could fairly easily buy a 4-plex in Wenatchee for the equity I have in this little pink house. The 4-plex we currently own (in East Wenatchee) cash flows nicely for us. We're also working toward building a duplex on land we already own so we could use the equity from this house to fund that and have a small mortgage or even no mortgage.

Ack, so many options and I struggle with the confidence in myself to make the right decisions. I know that will come with time; real estate investing is fairly new to me. 

Thanks, Heather! The previous owner was an eclectic poet. The mosaic work has seen better days because I do think it makes the pink and periwinkle a little more palatable. ha!

Thanks, guys! Great idea on using the roof as a bargaining chip. I imagine it will not be cheap to replace though since it's reached its limit of how many layers it can have and will involve more than just re-shingling. Two of the three realtors I've interviewed weren't concerned about the house color affecting the price. Still waiting on the opinion from the third.  I guess we shall see. 

It's time to sell my rental in West Seattle in order to find something with more (any) cash flow. I'm about a year overdue on replacing the roof per the pre-purchase inspection recommendation, and it will need full removal and replacement due to max. number of layers already on it. It was pink when I bought it. I'm guessing I should paint it and replace the roof in order to sell it faster and/or for possibly a slightly higher price. Would you put the money and time into it if you owned it? Or would you sell it as is? I moved away from Seattle a couple of years ago so haven't paid much attention to how the market is doing.