All Forum Posts by: M.C. Nachtigal

In Seattle, freeway noise can be just part of life.  With traffic fairly horrendous for commuting, if you are near a freeway exit, the location could actually be a very good thing as a rental.  It might make it a little harder to sell down the line, so it depends on your goals in buying the property.  Will you be flexible in choosing when it's time to sell, or do you have a specific timeline?  Does the house already have noise-blocking improvements like windows?  That could help with resale when that time comes, or for maintaining good tenants.

The latest in Seattle is that any amount of rent increase requires 180 days' notice, and if tenants have to move as a result of a rent increase, the landlord may have to pay relocation costs.  I haven't read all the nitty gritty details of this, but I'm sure it's not good for landlords.

Speaking about the brand new Seattle rules about giving 180 days notice for ANY rent increase and paying relocation costs if the tenant is unable to continue living there, what logistics have you come up with to navigate this?  I'm thinking I will give all tenants a routine 6.5 month notice of rent increasing by $100 or so, which I may or may not end up following through with.  All of mine turn over in summer, so 6 months is well before I know how much the taxes will be increasing, so this would buy me some flexibility.  As far as tenants claiming not to be able to afford this increase, I'm not sure if they would have to prove through paystubs or something.  Obviously, the best approach is to select tenants that can comfortably withstand a small increase each year so they can't claim this, but circumstances can change.  How are you planning to manage this new crazy rule?

The Seattle law of First in Time does not apply to mother in law units or backyard cottages, but does apply to duplexes/triplexes where the owner lives. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, because this last July, Seattle also passed new land use legislation that allows up to 2 additional units on a single family home property (one attached accessory dwelling unit and one detached ADU). So if the owner lives in one, they can be as choosy as they want as long as it's not zoned as a duplex/triplex.

While it annoys me that the city council would not consider a carve-out for small landlords (those who hold just a few units), there are many ways to protect one's investment that I have learned about, but not needed to test yet.  I had one unit turn over during the few months that this law was in effect, and I was clear with applicants about what was expected.  Things fell in line naturally, with the most qualified candidate immediately submitting a full application and the less qualified holding back because of screening fees.  In a case where there is an open house or multiple showings on one day, it is possible to only accept applications via snail mail, ensuring that they all arrive on the same day, thus allowing the landlord to pick among them which is the "first" he/she opens.  It's probably good for landlords to learn to be super clear about their expectations in advance anyway.  It's less clear how a court would handle an expectation of a specific skill such as gardening required in a tenant, or if landlords can state high expectations and then choose when to "relax" certain standards such as credit score.

Depending on how eager you are to get started, you might consider waiting a bit as ADU/DADU rules are probably about to change in the City of Seattle, with requirements getting considerably easier such as no dedicated parking space required, no owner occupancy requirement, and larger square footage allowed. I'm also looking at building a free-standing DADU in my backyard, and am waiting to decide on plans until the new land use regulations are finalized. http://www.seattle.gov/council/adu-eis

What were your costs and logistics of permitting the DADU?  Or is it even required in your area?

 In Seattle this is no longer legal.  Landlords have to state their tenant selection criteria in advance, and can only reject someone for one of those criteria.  Also, they have to accept the first applicant who meets those criteria. 

I don't know that it's really all that onerous on landlords, just requires a bit more creativity and possibly risk tolerance to set the required credit score or income level higher.  My understanding is that I also can not set as a criteria that someone has experience with landscaping, or something like that.  I can require positive prior landlord references, though.

We have a large house with a lake view that is currently rented to a retired couple while they build a house (cough, McMansion) on their own property just below the rental, directly on the waterfront.  While they more than fit my main two criteria for tenants, namely pay the rent on time and no concerns about damaging the property, they are becoming increasingly demanding about improvements to the house and yard.  Almost daily we get texts or emails about them wanting us to remove certain trees, or repaint the fence, or other things.  Soon after they moved in we made the mistake of trying to be "good landlords" and accommodated some of their requests, including a new bathroom fan.  Because the house is older with older wiring, the bathroom fan ended up costing us $8000 because we had to rewire the entire upstairs of the house.  We had already committed to replacing a partially fogged double pane window, adding carpeting in the den, and a few other things.  I have now sent two carefully and succinctly worded emails reminding them that, as stated in the lease, we will mow the lawn but any other maintenance or improvements are up to them if they want them done, and we request that they consult us for any major changes (like if they want to take out a tree).  I am struggling with the balance between sticking to just the letter of the law/lease, and trying to be a nice landlord who will take care of things just because they ask.  I feel like it's getting out of hand, and I wish I had just said "no" to everything from the beginning.  I realize that most tenants are of the opposite variety, not really taking care of things.  What do you do when they are trying to get you to do too much? 

 My rental homes are in Rainier Beach and Rainier View, respectively.  While the home and view are spectacular, there are many who wouldn't consider that area because of things like crime rate and diversity of other homes in the area (some are still less than well kept, though that is improving a lot).  It's definitely not Kirkland.  Recently my family moved and had many, many responses to our ad to rent our Rainier View home at a fairly low rent.  Many looked at the house and expressed interest, but very few applications were forthcoming.  It's a class B house in a class C area.  Fortunately we did find a lovely couple to rent it who seem solid, but if/when the housing market softens, it could be significantly more challenging.