All Forum Posts by: Sean Autry

To define “close”, we’re talking about places within a 15min drive.

Thanks again.

Hi All- My wife and I are in Seattle for the weekend from Los Angeles. We love it here so much, we are considering investing here so we have reasons/places to come back.

We're renting a car today to tour the surrounding area. What areas close to downtown Seattle should we check out today that are good candidates for BRRRR with some Cashflow?

We’d appreciate any suggestions. Thank you!

@Jason Papp, hopefully you’ll have good enough rapport with the sellers that you can trust them to give honest feedback on the tenants. Ask the current owner- find out the “problem children”, find out what’s left on their lease, and (a) see if the seller will agree to have them out before closing, or (b) you start the process of getting them out as soon as you takeover, and bake that cost into your purchase price. Option (a) is preferable. Even if they’re on a lease, the seller may be able to buy them out of it.

I’ve bought property with inherited bad tenants, but we know about them before closing so it isn’t an unwanted surprise, but rather an issue we’ve already planned to deal with on takeover.

@Brent T Galbreath- you should get the advice of an attorney. I don't know how much you have in personal assets outside of your investment real estate. A lot of times you can accomplish a lot without the LLC, and just get an umbrella insurance policy to give you enough protection in the event of legal action. After you've accumulated a number of properties (there's no magic number, really just depends on the assets you're trying to protect outside of your real estate), at that point an LLC May make the most sense.

Sorry- I know that wasn’t a direct answer, but hopefully helpful.

@Cody L.- yes, an experienced landlord does it exactly like hat. But we all start somewhere, and early on many landlords learn that the hard way on their first property or eviction.

@Matt Ferch- only trouble with buying real estate in your retirement plan is you lose a lot of the tax incentives both the real estate provides AND the retirement plan provides.

A lot of times rental real estate can be operated with a very low or non-existent tax bill, and the whole point of a 401(k) is to protect from taxes. So you’re buying an asset that doesn’t produce a lot of tax liability in a vehicle that protects against the taxes it doesn’t produce- and none of the liquidity can be accessed until retirement without a penalty.

I’m a bigger fan of note investing inside your retirement plan, and leaving the real estate outside of it.

Now, if your only opportunity to buy RE is inside of your retirement plan, then that’s a decision you need to make for yourself. But if you can manage to acquire it by other means- I’d suggest doing that.

@Aidan Mulligan, I have a pitbull. She’s the sweetest most gentle dog. Very well trained, and great with our kids... but I can’t let her near another dog or she’ll eat it.

SOME of how the media portrays them is true. Not their fault, people bred it into them to be fighters. Of course the media over exaggerates their danger...

Anyway, having said that, I won’t allow bully breeds at my properties and I’m a bully breed owner. All it takes is one person to get hurt, or someone’s dog to get hurt, and you the landlord can get roped into a lawsuit.

I’m a responsible bully breed owner. I know what situations will put my dog in a bad spot, and avoid those situations at all costs. But do you trust your tenants enough that they’ll also be that responsible? I don’t.

That’s just my 2 cents.

@Mike Chu I’ve invested in Apple Valley with some success. Class C for sure, but that’s the only way to cashflow in CA

@Shaun Hood, as others have mentioned, Pentagon Federal Credit Union is the place to go. I'm in process right now for a HELOC on my triplex

@Nicole Richards, thanks Nicole! We actually looked at that warranty. I’m trying to be optimistic, but the fine print looks like it can be voided easily. Marks from moving furniture and appliances were on the list of ways the warranty could be voided.

Of course, we’re gonna give it a shot! Let you know how it goes.