All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Washington’s second-largest city has been attracting transplants and retirees coming from the much more expensive city of Seattle.

 Thank you for your perspective, we plan on being owner-occupants. 

 Thank you for your advice.  We are already on contract and so there is no option to offer less at this point.  It valued at the price of the 2020 duplex I listed in this post. 

 Yes I do!  We live close by, and our insider information is that most of the Duplexes owned on East 40th Ave are owned by one owner who is selling his portfolio to an out of state millionaire!  These are the Duplexes all listed for $530K crazy!  All being sold to an out of state investor. Absolutely nuts!  

Have you tried McKinstry?  They do mostly commercial space.  

The struggle is for real!  Congrats on the upcoming April 1st closing!  We are trying like hell to make a deal work here in Spokane on an overpriced Duplex. Haha

Cash is Trash!  You might consider conservatively investing your money until you can hit that dollar amount.  I wouldn't advise any young person to save money right now.  I like that you know your goal AND exit plan, that is great!  I would get serious about investing, yes, even in stocks right now as map out the return needed to your down payment amount.  Yes you can always borrow more and what not from other lenders or family but if its just you, I'd invest and stay persistent. 

I'd be interested!  The Spokane market is still insanely hot, and we need more representation. 

1)  Get a property as soon as possible.  Growth trends will continue as well as inflation.  Your money is worth more now than in 5 yrs. Lock it up with an inflation beating mortage rate. 

Hey guys,

we have been noticing that Duplexes are being priced to perfection in the Spokane market! 

Here is the situation:  We have a contract for a duplex right now in Spokane Valley that was built in 2008 and needs some minor but necessary repair work and it just appraised for more than two recently built newer duplexes in the area.  All the homes listed in this post (two recent builds with photos & 3 other comparable sales listed at the bottom) are what came up in the appraisal.  I left out what the appraiser included as 'Comparable Rentals'. 

My question:  Would you consider paying more than the prices of these two newer builds in the Spokane Valley for an older duplex where one of the units needs a lot of repairs?  The duplex we have on contract is currently being valued (appraised) more than these two recently built duplexes in Spokane Valley; (2018) duplex in the Millwood area and another recent built duplex (2020) in the Veradale area.  Details below:

1506 E. 1st St. Ave, sold for $649,000 back in August of 2021. 1st Picture included from Redfin.

4315 N Centennial Ln Unit 4317 N Centennial Ln sold for $636,000 back in July of 2021. 2nd Picture included from Redfin.

I'm going to keep the duplex we have on contract private for now but here are the details.  It is located in the Spokane Valley near Opportunity.  I understand this is a tough question because it's hard to evaluate without having all the details right in front of you when making a comparison.  My hope and bias are that others agree that what we just received as appraised value is odd, overvalued possibly and just hard to believe.  I'm also looking forward to opinions on the Spokane market being still very hot, rents are going up and if this is the market value than it could still be a decent deal after all repairs are made and 5yrs. down the road after we move out to make the next deal (acknowledging as a buyer I don't think there is such a thing as a fair deal right now). 

*3 beds/2.5baths per unit.  

*1,782 sq.ft. per unit.  2-story duplex. 

*1-car attached garages.

*Built in 2008.  

*Modern finishes and all original HVAC equipment and appliances.  

*The roof 'wasn't' inspected because of frost the day of the inspection back in early January.  My assumption is that it is the original roof. 

*10,545 sq.ft. lot mostly black topped. 

What we have on contract is 10 years older than the 4215 N Centennial Ln duplex shown above and 12 years older than 1506 E 1st St.  duplex shown above.  One of the Units has significant tenant damage from a family living in that Unit for over 8 yrs.  The duplex has all the original HVAC and appliance equipment.  The sellers have been very stingy on offering any kind of repairs for the tenant damages from our requests.  What are the tenant damages you ask?  About $5K in damages ranging from causes such as fist sized holes in all the doors, ripped carpet to run internet cable from downstairs to upstairs bedrooms, ceiling damage, to broken tile in the kitchen to torn up drywall in the upstairs bathroom and etc.,  We even gave them a pop-fly inspection response form and asked for very little that needs to be done repair and fix so not to scare them or offend them OR pay $4,800.  They came back and red-lined the crap out of our requests!  My realtor thought for sure they would pay the $4,800 towards closing costs.  

Now there's average wear in tear in the other unit and it really just needs a solid cleaning to get ready to rent at market rent rates.  Both units right now have pets in them, and I didn't discover any urine smells, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are some hidden smells or damage that I didn't catch during the inspection.  The exterior of the duplex needs repainting and both the A/C condensers are completely unleveled on their soft pads from a rising root system from the tree in the backyard.  This condenser issue also has not been addressed by the sellers in a meaningful way to properly fix.  Other than that, the duplex is spacious, modern, has covered front porches, small back patios and 248 sq.ft. 1-car attached garages.  I think it's very close to "Townhome' status because of its size and location to Sprague Ave but it's located in its own black top parking "enclave lot".  It feels safe because of its location off one of the main roads but has a very apartment like feel at the same time (no front yard/view/green spaces besides the smaller patio backyards).  Basically, good for kids to rollerblade/ride their bikes.  And or charge a little parking lot fee for anyone with a big RV/trailer.  My biggest gripe is that the sellers want top dollar when one of the units has been disrespectfully damaged by the one family and very obvious deferred maintenance.  There are still some capital expenditures on the horizon since they have literally done nothing since it was built in 2008. 

What are your guy's thoughts?  The appraisal has assumed that you could rent both units at $1,850 per month and I strongly believe you cannot do that presently with all the damages in the one unit.  Our plan is to owner occupy and I believe we have to occupy the damaged unit and make all the repairs ourselves over time.  Kind of a bummer for paying top dollar on what I thought was going to be a newer nicer home.  I guess 2008 was a long time ago!  Hahaha.  How could the appraiser miss all that?  Why is she appraising a duplex more than the two recently built duplexes?  How odd that the appraised value came in EXACTLY at the sellers list price?  Those questions are my thoughts...

I purposefully am omitting the details of the other duplexes listed below as you can copy and paste the addresses to see what has currently been listed in the market.  These 3 duplexes have been listed as 'comparable sales' in our appraisal.  I just wanted to keep this post related to the two above recently built duplexes being sold for around $640K and if any new buyers out there would pay more than that for the recent listings on the market?

Here are the other comparable sales that have been listed in the $560K to $575K range. 

1) 16705 E Broadway Ave - $561K

2) 13313 E12th Ave - $565K

3) 1515 N Mamer Rd - $575K 

Same question in regards what we have on contract, would you pay around $635K to $650K for any of the three listings above? 

I personally think that is freaking nuts!!!

Thanks everyone and happy Sunday,

-Becca and Steve