All Forum Posts by: Steve K.

@Jacob Cohen Condos I've seen in Seattle area tend to increase the monthly HOA fees every few years. Whatever cashflow you have will get eroded over time. Condos are cheaper to start, but sometimes the HOA will place rental caps on the community so one may be waiting inline to rent out to the next tenant. And condos don't appreciate in value as much as SFR. With big enough property, you can subdivide or develop into higher density housing. Real money is made a re-zoning or subdivision.

I am going.  See you there.

Everyone I talked to, investor and non-investor, has bad experience with HOA. Because HOA can issue special assessments any time according to the bylaws, it has the potential to wipe out your multiple year cash flow and reserves. In your case, a special assessment such as "repainting exterior or replace roof" can easily wipe out your $30k gain. Even though the current board "doesn't really enforce" the HOA rules, what happens when the board member changes?

The reason why we do REI to have more control of our financial future, maximize gains, and minimize risk. Having HOA looking over whatever you are doing is increasing risk, and you are relinquishing control.

I would run away as fast as I can from HOA properties. Unless you have the means to purchase the whole community and have complete control over HOA. Instead of HOA bossing you around, you boss the HOA. :-)

@Tamar Mar   Congrats.  Always nice to hear people are getting deals.  What are some things you looked for when searching for the property?  Demographics, income, rent comparison matrix, target customer, etc.

I am also curious if anyone uses walk score and how did you find the property?

@Jeremy Magin   Welcome.  Great intro.  Hope to hear more about what you learned on short sale soon.

@Melissa Melia  Hi I am near east side, or Factoria.  I self manage my own rental.  Good property managers are hard to find outside of Seattle.

@Jeremiah O'Neill   I got a panel replaced by a licensed electrician in Seattle.  Going from an 80 Amp to 200 Amp.  Original was a Zinsco, which was known to fail and cause electrical fires.  The new panel is a Square D QO series.  Comparing the circuit breakers, my personal take is that QO is better than the Homeline series.  The electrician drove two ground rods and cost was $1600 labor only.

Apprentice level electricians may be cheaper than journeyman electricians.  So you may have opportunity to save some money there.  Any electrician worth his/her salt should be able to tell you what NEC stands for and what the code requirements are.  Local gov inspector will give you a permit to reconnect after inspection.  The one I met is helpful and will point out a few things electrician missed.  But they won't comment on less than perfect workmanship, which engineers likes to see.  :-)

@Frank Rubio  Your dad probably heard a few horror stories about renting.  Mid-night phone calls.  Having to evict tenants, etc.  Your dad's generation is mostly about home ownership and rental property is probably new territory to him.

It's your property and you have complete control over it, unless he was an equity partner or gave /loaned you money for the property.  If your local real estate outlook is positive, then definitely hang on to the property and rent it out.  

@Melissa Melia  Welcome.  What areas are you concentrating now days?  Columbia City?  West Seattle?  And we can always learn from each other.  : )

@Mike Hartzog   Assuming this is a 1-4 unit dwelling, CFPB has a lot of guidance and regulations on the properties.  A safe way to handle this, is to attempt a loan work out first and try to get it re-performing.  You probably tried this already with sending notice of default, work out letters, etc.  Next thing to try is @Bill Gulley method of deed in lieu.  The very last resort is foreclosure.  What the regulatory agencies are looking for is the "intent" to work the issues out with the mortgagor.  We can document that the mortgagee tried to resolve the issues with mortgagor, then we can't be accused of predatory lending.  Good luck.