All Forum Posts by: Eric Blanchard

Improving your score is definitely the main reason many of us use credit cards. But this may also help you overcome your aversion to them - it actually makes financial sense to use a credit card since most have rewards. As long as you pay it off monthly and the card doesn't have a fee, you'll actually be a tad better off than if you'd just used cash. Saving several hundred a year won't make you rich...but who would choose to pay several hundred when they didn't have to :)

Thanks, @Jay Hinrichs.

welcome @Joseph Plaugher ! That's great your family has some real estate background - I'm the only one in my immediate family who is into real estate. If you haven't already, check out the podcast section - lots of good content there.

Quick note on this topic - I use Zillow to get an idea of the general price level of a neighborhood. Zillow generally has no idea of an individual home's price, but I look at the range of estimates on all the homes around it. Are they between 150k and 200k? or 300k and 400k? That kind of data is helpful, and Zillow is *more* accurate with neighborhood data than individual house data.

I grew up by SeaTac airport, did grad school in North Tacoma. It has some real armpits, but some nice areas too and neighborhoods that are "moving up" so to speak. Be aware that decades ago heavy industry put a lot of arsenic in the air, and toxic levels are still present in the ground in some north end areas.

@Jabien Letlow feel free to ask me if you have trouble tracking down anything on Seth's list (#1-5). I'm familiar with the online resources for Washington, Clackamas, and Multnomah counties. And Clark county in WA.

Welcome! Watch out for normal people from Vancouver :)

Are you involved in any other types of RE investing, or is buy and hold your focus?

@Trevor Thompson Way to hit the ground running! I'll keep an eye on this thread - I end up down your way regularly. About the letters - as I'm sure you know, it's a numbers game, so sometimes it takes several mailings before the law of averages kicks in. Good luck in '14!

Welcome Ted! Glad to hear the podcasts have been inspiring - that's one of the things that attracted me to BP.

Be sure and set up your keyword alerts - they help you quickly zero in on relevant forum discussions.

Good luck!

-Eric

I've been to the Tigard one that meets at Baja Fresh, and also the one in Lloyd Center. A number of the same people attend the various meetings. I've found that the officers are frequently the best people to talk to. Check their meeting calendar at their site: http://www.northwestreia.com