All Forum Posts by: Lennox Matsinde

This may not be the most effective way of going about this but here goes nothing.

I'm in the market for a small standalone home or town-home in the beacon hill or West Seattle neighborhoods, with at least 2 beds and 1.75 baths. Hoping to network with wholesalers, investors or anyone else with anyone else that might have some good deals in these areas.

Thanks for reading!

I recently got an agent referral from a coworker. We hit it off so i asked the guy to help me find a home. From there he referred me to a one of his preferred lenders and now i am completely pre-approved for a mortgage with that lender. 

Long story short, though its only been about 2 or 3 weeks, this agent doesnt appear to be actively trying to find homes for me. He put me on an automated MLS email list based off of my search criteria (which i've heard is what lazy agents tend to do). The automated emails i get from him come in at the same time my redfin notifications come in so I don't think I'm getting any real benefit from him sending me those. That being said, I am looking for a home in Seattle which is a very competitive market, with really low inventory and i have a very strict budget and criteria to stick to. Do i just have unrealistic expectations or can my agent be doing more?

What are some thoughts?

(We've made 2 offers, one of which was a home i'd found by myself on redfin and we've gotten outbid on both. He hasn't really been reaching out to me to try and maybe re-strategize)

Multiple times now I've heard of a MLS search web app or website called Pellago (or something along those lines). I cant for the life of me find it online. Does anyone know if it still exists or if i'm maybe just spelling it wrong? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you all for the valuable insight. I've since decided that the cost of buying an MFR in the Seattle neighbourhoods i'm interested is just not feasible at this time (with this impending market crash, pouring excessive amounts of capital into something that might exponentially depreciate in a couple years sounds risky). It sounds like finding a SFR with an ADU could easily achieve what i'm going for.

Thank you @Pete Perez, that makes a lot of sense. I'm ideally looking at a buy & hold on an MFR with the eventual hopes of doing a 1031 exchange into a higher occupancy MFR, so the idea of figuring out one's exit strategy prior to the purchase is still very foreign to me (too many unknowns, e.g. state of the market etc). I guess that's something i'll need to flesh out a little bit more.

Thank you for the input @Kay Keovongphet.

@Jan Wanot the cap rate discussion is one that i had been ignoring for far too long. I've since shifted my focus further south along I-5 (primarily the rapidly gentrifying Renton area). It doesn't look like there are any solid multi-family deals left in the city of Seattle. :-/

Thanks for the heads up @Harrison Liu

Thanks @Matt Gragg. That's my main qualm with renting out rooms in a house. I don't like how most people live so i would definitely need my own space. Thanks again!

To any active investors in the Seattle area, as you know, we live in a hot seller's market (King County) where the cheapest duplex you'll see is asking at least $500k +. My question today is, even with an FHA loan, in this market, is it feasible for a newbie investor to start off by having their first purchase be a duplex? Or would it be wiser to try and house-hack a single-family house with multiple rentable bedrooms? Also, with us approaching the bursting-point of this market bubble we're in, should this influence my decision on which property type to buy?

Many thanks!

Thanks again @Alex Chin I'll remember to get in touch with you once I'm ready to make my first purchase.