All Forum Posts by: Michael Tan

@Ali Boone - fantastic answer!

Hi Katherine,

This sounds like a fun and wished I could attend but won't be in town that week. Will you host another in the future?

C.J - I recently moved to Seattle and been actively searching for the past couple of months. Agree with the other members, at the mentioned price point in Seattle you would be limited to studios and 1/1 condos with HOA fees. If you're looking for a house, your best bet is narrowing your search to Kent and south or over across the Sound to Bremerton which is connected to downtown Seattle by the Kitsap fast ferry daily.

Feel free to reach out. Happy to help a fellow investor.

Michael

Speaking from experience as an insurance underwriter, there are a number of variables that affect insurance premiums. Replacement cost, as Joe mentioned is a main driver and driven off of type of construction (i.e. frame, brick veneer, masonry, etc...), type of building (ranch, 2 storey, etc...), size of building, and zip code (labor and material varies depending on location) but there are other variables that are considered as well. We follow the principals of COPE, which stands for construction, occupancy, protection, and exposures. From a construction standpoint, a fire resistive building is superior to a frame construction building and would have a lower insurance rate but would have a much higher replacement cost.  A building that is occupied as a single family home is less of an exposure to an insurance company that a rooming house would be so would be. Protection, i.e. how far fire hydrants and fire halls (whether full time or volunteer) are from the location is important as it will determine response time in the event of a fire. Finally, exposures, e.g. is the building in a quake zone? flood zone? frequency of wild fires?

Hope this helps.

@Erich Bubbel - thank you for your comments. That makes a lot of sense and puts it into perspective. As long as we are paying less out of pocket than we are paying in rent, we are better off. This makes us more comfortable in widening our search. 

Good evening and hope everyone is doing well! I'm new to BP and wished I found it sooner. So much amazing stuff on this platform. My wife and I recently relocated from the east coast to Seattle about a month ago. We are eagerly expecting our first little one in a few months and really excited to put down roots in this beautiful city. Everyone is talking about the coming housing correction but I think Seattle has very strong fundamentals that it will be able to weather the storm quite well. We're looking forward to buying our first real estate investment property together and we're both on board with doing a house hack to get us started and on our path to financial freedom. We're not very familiar with the city and have been pretty much isolated to the First Hill area where she works and where we currently rent.  The areas around us are really nice but just so expensive to get anywhere close to breaking even through house hacking. We've been eyeing West Seattle due to the relative affordability and landscape but her colleagues cautioned us not to live anywhere where we need to cross a bridge to get into the city due to the traffic. I've been toying with the idea of Tacoma (even though it's seems so far away) but real estate is so much more cheaper. I grew up in a big city so long commutes (i.e. 1hr +) is normal for me. Also a good portion of the city has beautiful views of the Seattle skyline. There seems to be ALOT of multifamily properties for sale there. Could any local share their honest opinion on living and investing in Tacoma? 

Many thanks and happy holidays to all!

Michael