All Forum Posts by: Rudy Manna

I own several rentals on beside busy street in Pierce County, Tacoma/WA. I have a need for advertisements (for my own biz), that I was wondering to put signage in my lot. Do any of you have experience doing this? Specifically:

- How do you deal with tenants on putting the signage on the lot? Do you give them discounts?

- Are there any city/county/state lays prohibiting signage? Do i need approvals? 

- Any idea of costs for putting signage?

@Amanda Rivera

Its a horrible investment.

-Overpriced

-Horrible cash flow.

-Poor liquidity. Above range price and too large  for that neighborhood.

If your agent haven't told you any of those, time to fire him/her.

Yes, I think its worth it, if you can get the land at a reasonable cost. From long term perspective a brand new building is superior investment due to lower maintenance and higher liquidity (should be lot easy to sell) . Something I am considering this year. Having good success with BRRRR in the area, hence new construction is getting delayed.

@James Lusk 

@Christina Tkacs

If cash flow is your priority then you shouldn't be investing in Tacoma.

This is where so many experienced investors in biggerpockets get it wrong. They focus on cash flow only, get nitty gritty with vacancy, cap rates etc etc., and then to justify numbers buy a house in a bad neighborhood, poor configuration, weird looking, sfr hacked into multi, small lot - no garage, un-permitted additions, etc etc. What it does is that, you are buying a something whose price wont go up, or wont even sell in a growth market. In long run, those kind of houses will under perform what novice investors are buying.

Point is that,  focusing on cash flow in a growth market is a poor investment strategy. I f you want cash flow go to Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Orlando, Spokane and so many other place. 

Folks,  we are going nitty gritty into the numbers here but missing out on the big picture.

- Tacoma being not too far from Seattle, has transformed into a growth market over last year or so. It barely cash flows there. You can, and should, bet on appreciation. Anybody working in Seattle and making less than $80K are moving to Tacoma-Puyallup-Auburn- Federal Way etc. 

- Demand is crazy and vacancy is super low. If you have 10-15% vacancy than you probably arent doing it right.

- Rents are growing 10-15% per year, probably more in Hilltop and East tacoma.

In essense, if you are looking for mid-west type cash flow, than Tacoma/South sound isn't a good fit.

 Can you please tell me the options between cheaper vs. long term/proper options. Dont know much about sewer lines, hence trying to educate myself.

How much does it cost dig up and replace sewer line?

Sewer was backing up in one of my rental units and I called in one emergency plumbing services. The guy cleaned up the line but tells me that he scoped out and found part of the pipes is original and broken and need to be replaced. He will need to dig up 6 feet and replace 20 linear feet and gave a bid of 15,000 plus tax. I am going to take more bids, but wanted to hear how much people pay? This is in Tacoma, Washington.

@jacob 

@Jacob Wyatt I am in same boat. I have been really aggressive in seattle-Tacoma area acquisitions. With some hard work and luck got about 10 sfr in the last year or so, but it's getting harder and harder to make numbers work for brrrr. There are so much investor money flowing from seattle tech that the spread between fixers and retail rates are getting narrower and narrower. I am also researching on Spokane, and hoping to get started this summer. 

thanks @Account Closed, past the loan limit for regular mortgages hence need to move to portfolio lenders.