All Forum Posts by: Tawnie Vinitnantharat

@Colleen F.

I will have to look up that thermostat, that sounds like a great idea. 

We don't have window AC units, but if a tenant brings one I will make sure to include in the lease that these must be removed during months that the furnace runs, and that windows must stay closed. 

I hadn't thought about targeting multi-generational families, but I will give that a shot as well. It is very common for certain cultures in the area. 

Thanks

@Thomas S.

Yes, we were planning on splitting the utilities 60/40 and averaging what our utilities have been for the past year plus about $10-$15 a month (for protection). Our current tenants are already very wasteful when it comes to utilities (they never turn the furnace/lights off), so our averages from the past year are already on the high end of the spectrum. 

Locking the thermostat is a great idea though. I think I will just lock it at 70 degrees, and they can open and shut their vents as they please.

My spouse would love to put the utilities under the tenants in the larger unit, but so far that has been a major deterrent for prospective tenants. 

Great insight, thanks for the input. 

Hello BP,

My spouse and I bought a single family home with an ADU last year. We lived in the ADU and rented out the main home. So we were able to have a pretty great relationship with our tenants and really be on top of everything. However, are amazing tenants are now moving to Hawaii (and we can't compete with that), and at the same time we bought a home for ourselves. So, we are planning on renting out the home and the ADU separately.

However, these units do have shared utilities. So, we are planning on keeping the utilities in our name, and charging the tenants a flat monthly rate for utilities. The other issue is that these units share a furnace. So I have tried to read up on laws in the Seattle, WA area and it seems that I am allowed to have a central heating system and just put in the lease that the temperature can't be set to lower than 68 degrees. Does anyone have any experience with this, or any other suggestions?

@Graydon Manning Great input. My spouse and I recently did something similar. Bought a home with a $1800 mortgage (taxes and insurance included) in Des Moines, WA. However, we live in the 800 sq ft ADU and rent the main home for $1500/month. This allows us to save the money we would be paying on rent, or a mortgage and save for our next investment.

We just put an offer on a duplex in the Sunset area of Renton, and were having the same debate you were posing above. That short-term cash flow would be low, but we could hold for a while and develop a 4 plex on the large lot, as the city of Renton is approving a lot of these in this area. Also, the short term cash flow would be worth it for us because we would live there for the next year and be in a much more central location (cut our commutes in half). However, too many others thought the same thing and an offer that was able to put 50% down was accepted over ours. 

It is tough to get an offer accepted right now, especially when you are competing with others who are paying in cash. Sellers don't want to risk your financing falling through if the home is not appraised high enough. This situation has happened to us a few times now. This is leading us to look more into Puyallup and Tacoma areas for investments. 

@Lennox Matsinde

Hello BP, 

I am Tawnie, a 26 year old HR specialist living in Des Moines, WA! My husband/ business partner and I have recently begun our REI journey. We bought a duplex in Des Moines, WA last year for 295K. We live in the smaller unit and and rent out the large unit for 1500/month. Now, we are offering on a duplex in Renton, WA for 400K. Hoping to move there and do the same thing (while keeping and renting all of the Des Moines duplex of course). We are really new to all of this, and don't have much of an agenda yet, just that hard end goal of financial freedom. So any advice is welcome here.

We are nervous about the Renton duplex we are offering on, because we are going higher than the listing price, but this is not only an investment opportunity for us but a chance to cut our commutes in half while investing. Plus it seems to be in an area set to boom. Any luck/ resources/ advice is appreciated. 

Happy to be here!

Tawnie