All Forum Posts by: Kristin Whitaker

From a Spokane local, the city meets all of your criteria.  GREAT skiing (5 resorts within two hours), great hospitals, still somewhat of a secret as far as investing goes but blowing up at record pace.  Check it out!

Highly recommend Adrian Da Silva with Perfection Roofing, best sub I've ever worked with hands down.  

Depending on what you need for HVAC check out Air Control.

 Hi Taft, I don't use Redfin but was going off the info from one of the posters above, sorry about that!  I use Zillow mostly for speed and ease and then back it up with a quick search on Realtor.com and county records.  

Great article Kuba! 

Using a Realtor for finding comps is not worth the time lost!  When I first got started I lost a few good deals because I was relying on an agent to provide comps and/or let me in the door.  In this market those deals you've found will most likely be snatched up by the time they get comps back to you.

Zillow, Realtor.com, sounds like Redfin has Spokane covered now, are great free tools.  Learn to view recent sales and take into account house size, lot size, is there a shop, any extras like pools, is the basement finished/unfinished, does it need a lot of work or is it a fresh remodel?  The more time you spend looking at comps yourself on these sites (although NEVER trust a Zestimate!) in your chosen areas, the faster it will come to you.  I can find good comps and have a solid idea of property value in less than 10 minutes.  

Congrats Levi and welcome to the area!  Enjoy taking those checks to the bank :)

I know this is an old thread, but wanted to add this info for anyone searching for vacation rental statistics - I use AirDNA.co.  They offer quite a bit of info free (I was able to glean where to buy/not buy based on their free statistics) but they offer a paid subscription you need to purchase if you really want to dial down into details. 

^^^ What he said!  NW Granite is by FAR the best pricing and service (on countertops at least, that's what I've used them for)

I always support shopping local first but the wallet can be a bigger concern :) I've scored a pretty good deal on luxury vinyl plank last summer at the Home Depot and I believe they are still carrying it, highly recommend for rental grade or low-budget flip.  Lumber Liquidators is good for higher end stuff.  Ugly Duck's hit or miss.  I really like Overstock Builder's Depot on the corner of Hamilton & Trent, have found some killer deals there.  Mostly on doors and tile though.

Spokane is extremely hot right now and that has chased some investors away, however there are still plenty of deals to be had.  As someone not as familiar with the area as a local might be, just do your research and due diligence - something that looks like a killer deal in a great area might actually be drugtown.  Always my advice to out-of-towners, vet the location well.