All Forum Posts by: Phil Wells

@Manco Snead - I'm working with a lot of buyers who are moving from California. They are typically bringing their remote jobs with them and are qualified to buy above median home prices here in Spokane. However, most are looking to replicate/slightly improve their standard of living not buy a 10,000 sq ft mansion. 

I'm seeing a lot of Californians pocketing a large portion of their equity from the sale back in CA and enter the Spokane market at the 250-500K range. This is forcing appreciation and leading to multiple offer situations.

Just my 2 cents.

Spokane rocks - we're getting really strong appreciation here (10%+ YOY). There's also good economic signs here too - people are moving here, money is coming, businesses are opening up and homes are getting built! 

Cost of living is also below the national average. Spokane is well worth exploring. I'm working with a ton investors who are actively investing in Spokane right now and they're making money so don't dismiss it!

You're getting around 10% appreciation YOY across the board (11.7% median home price increase YOY in July according to the Spokane Association of Realtors).

So, 'where's the best neighborhood' comes down to your personal preference and the factors you want in a property. @Joshua Norwood is absolutely right about the Valley, it's a great community out there. 

If you're pretty open to location I'd look for the best schools, lowest crime, proximity to economic centers like hospitals and the universities, the Air Force Base, etc and you won't go too far wrong in Spokane. There are areas you should avoid though so link up with a local pro for street by street/property specific advice.

Good luck!

I would look at refi options or a heloc rather than going through a 1031 for the sake of 2 SFHs. You're getting crazy low rates right now so you may be able to get them to cashflow after the refi or put them on track to be paid off sooner.

A break even property still increases your net worth every month! You're getting that loan pay down and especially in Spokane you're getting that sweet, sweet appreciation.

Let us know what you decide to do!

Maybe you target different tenants. How about shifting into Section 8 housing?

Where there's a will there's a way. 

@Kevin Parekh In the eternal words of Malcolm In The Middle - "Yes, no, maybe, I don't know, can you repeat the question?"

You can't time the market plain and simple. Just because one company (united airlines) is laying people off who is to say Amazon doesn't relocate a headquarters there in the near future, for example? That said if your local economy is utterly dependent on once industry (Detroit in the 60s) then absolutely play it safe.

Buy something that cash flows now and in 10 years time you won't be asking whether you bought at the right time but why you waited so long to buy.

@Kenny Hsu - Timing the market is not possible. Plain and simple. 

"What if we're at the top of the market?"

"What if the market crashes?"

"What if when the market crashes there's too much competition for cheap homes and I can't get my offer accepted?"

"If everyone is buying at the same time maybe I should be smart and hold off"

I hear this a lot. Buy a deal that works for you sooner rather than later. In 10 years time when you have been sitting on 3% average YOY appreciation, loan pay down and 10 years of cash flow you won't be asking if it was a bad idea to buy at that time.

Good luck!

@Manasseh Arnold - 

Loyalty is key to any business relationship, whether it's suppliers, professional individuals or parties to the agreement. Why should an agent be loyal to you and give you his best if you're playing both sides? 

Find one agent you like and cut the other out or you may find both agents will stop working with you if you're not loyal to either.

Regardless of ethics if you use one agent and sign a buyers representation agreement (often included in offers, you might not remember signing) and then close with another agent then theoretically an agent can recover a commission from you. You can end this agreement at anytime - it's more a gesture of good faith.

In reality no agent will try to recover a commission from you as it's terrible publicity but it's something to bear in mind.

Now if you use 2 agents and one specializes in multi-family/commercial and the other specializes in SFHs then that's a different story.

It depends:

- If you're buying this as a primary residence to house hack then you can use a VA, FHA or conventional (at whatever down payment you can get a lender to agree to). 15-20% seems reasonable for a conventional loan right now.

- If you're buying as an investment it's going to be more like 25%.

Some lenders are tightening their lending criteria right now so you may find some discrepancies between pre/post covid down payments.

Good luck on the duplex!

A snapshot of the data is in. Right now people do seem to be leaving the super cities for less densely populated areas and smaller cities.

https://www.redfin.com/blog/ap...