All Forum Posts by: Michael DeHaan

Thats good. The one on Queen is almost identical sounding to that. 8 units. All the studios share a bathroom. Couple units redone.

Its a rough place.

I'm assuming this is the place on Queen that every wholesaler/investor in town has looked at.

It's a dump in the worst part of town with quotes for asbestos mitigation pushing $200k.

Also if you google the address you can find photos of the tenants smoking a crack pipe and tagging the apartment as their location.

I recently bought a 5/3 SF with a 1/1 mother in law suite that would be great for an FHA house hack in Spokane Valley.

1950's built, reasonably updated with some funky flooring/hardware from the previous sellers that we are working on.

A young couple could live in the 1 and 1 and pretty much live for free renting out the big house or could live in the big house and AIRBNB the 1/1 and do well.

Was planning to list for $499k here soon, but if you want a shot off market feel free to send me a message. 

From a perspective of buying multi's on the market in Spokane it seems pretty reasonable to me. Finding Multis with decent COC potential on the market is extremely difficult in Spokane these days unless its some kind of weird hacked up 100 year old single family. We have found listed Multi families to typically be absurdly expensive for the rent potential. Also not sure where this one is, but we hold properties in a number of the "C Class" areas currently (We own in West Central, Hillyard, Chief Garry Park and East Central) and honestly they are almost easier rentals than some of the A/B class properties we own just because those tenants want some stability in their housing and arent looking to move around much!

I work with a Spokane local Hard Money company called Inland Capital. 

We work with New Investors all the time. Ive actually recently been chatting with @Sean Thompson about financing for deals he is looking at.

Feel free to give me a call if youd like to talk over the process. I DM'd you my number.

Cost me $36k. Bought from wholesalers. 

Hi Bigger Pockets!

I am just curious what processes/tips some of you landlords might have to be more efficient with Tenant Move In/Move Out? Not only that but do you have tips for avoiding conflict after Move Out as I feel like there are always some complaints from the Move Out tenant on cleaning and repair charges even when they are extremely obvious.

Currently the process is:

-Tenant Moves in and completes a Move In Checklist (Usually they do a pretty vague job as well to be honest)

-We have to coordinate getting the Move In Checklist back either by going and picking it up or having them come meet us.

-At End of Lease, we send Tenant Move Out Checklist which they may or may not complete

-I go walk the property, trying to comprehend the vague move in checklist, take photos and notes of the current state of everything

-I get quotes for repairs, get cleaning done, then write a move out report explaining if/how much of their deposit we are deducting and send it to them

-They ultimately call or email and complain that I am treating them unfairly despite photo evidence of messes/damages they left and quotes explaining clearly showing the reparation costs.

Over all this process takes a hand full of hours and I feel like their must be a more efficient way!

Any tips? Or am I alone on this one?

@Jeffrey M. In my experience Rentometer is not great for the Spokane area. There are alot of very nice expensive areas in close proximity to the lower income areas that skew the numbers.

For example look at Kendall Yards proximity to West Central, Manito and Perry Streets proximity to lower south hill. Similar size and age properties will very by large amounts in those 2 comparisons and there's micro versions of that all over Spokane.

I have found the best method to be looking myself at compatible rental listings on Zillow and working with my property manager rather than relying on Rentometer.

Spokane standard is all appliances included. I occasionally have tenants who have their own Washer/Dryer in which case I just store the ones I provided.

As for the sprinkler system, if the home has an HOA that requires a certain standard of lawn then it could be beneficial. Otherwise I wouldnt add one as it would just be more maintenance. Tenants traditionally wont take the best care of lawns from my experience, but a couple tactics have found helpful are:

1) Requiring they maintain the lawn to a certain standard in the lease with a clause saying that they will be charged for professional lawn service if it is not maintained.

2) Providing professional lawn service as a perk and adding it into the rental price. You just need to make sure you hype this up in your listing so its really seen as a perk and not as an expense they dont care about.

Both have worked with mixed success. Really just depends on the area and type of tenants you are targeting.

You could inquire about buying down to a lower rate to make it cash flow, but then you will be more out of pocket up front. If you did a Cashout Refi on your home to buy this property outright, you'd have to figure out how the monthly payment of that would differ from if you financed the investment property and determine your cashflow that way. You may be able to get a lower interest rate on your own home, but you might find yourself just trading apples for apples.

Currently in Spokane it is a bit tricky to find SFRs that cash flow well unless you are doing the BRRRR method and putting in a bit of work. Buying right off the MLS at current prices and rental rates typically just yields a lower cash flow unless you get creative with it. If cash flow is purely the goal, a SFR may not be the best bet.

Feel free to shoot me a message with the address if you like and I'll me more than happy to give you my opinion on it.