All Forum Posts by: Yury Maslovskiy

Hello BP nation. I'm from Seattle area and looking to buy a duplex investment property but 99% of such properties in Seattle area are overpriced, rents below market, barely braking even, and still getting too many offers within a couple days. So I'm having a hard time to find something decent, within budget, and low competition. I keep looking though. 

Anyway, I started looking at other markets in WA and there are some opportunities in Spokane and Spokane Valley that offer better rent potential, newer buildings, and similar purchase price levels as in Seattle area. I'm wondering how good is appreciation in Spokane and how is the rental market doing? 

I'm now looking to connect with a reputable property manager in Spokane area, please send some referrals. 

Also, if anyone here lives in Spokane and knows the neighborhoods, I would love to chat and see what are some of the good and bad areas. 

If there's a hero who'd be willing to do a drive by area check and report back that would be amazing. These two duplexes I'm looking at are located  just east of Underhill park and South of Costco on Sprague Ave. For some reason I have a feeling that these duplexes are in a A-B class development surrounded but C class neighborhoods, but I might be totally wrong. 

Thanks everyone, appreciate the suggestions, very helpful! 

@Jeremy Taggart, yes I understand that at this time cash flow is more important. However I would still like to know how to calculate roi in this scenario. Just to know it. Or it purely doesn't matter at all at this time and roi should only be looked at before purchasing a new investment? 

Hello, I'm very new to RE investing, although I've been a landlord for the past year...this is probably a very basic question, but nonetheless it puzzles me - what is the most correct way to calculate ROI for a rental unit that has been converted from a primary residence? I couldn't find a specific answer for my scenario anywhere. Here's the scenario:

A little over a year ago my wife and I converted our primary res. to a rental without too much financial analysis. I know that it would've been better to do it back then, but better late than never, right? Anyway, now we are trying to decide whether we should sell or continue renting it out. So how do we calculate current ROI ? Here are the numbers (rounded up):

- Original purchase price ~ $180K

- Current value ~$230K

- Remaining balance ~ $140K

- Mortgage payment + HOA ~ $1,300

- Current rent = $1,700

To calculate ROI at the current time should I base it on the initial investment amount (downpayment) or the current equity position? I've read somewhere online that you should do the latter, but at the same time if I were to calculate ROI as if it was a potential new purchase I would base the calculation on the downpayment, right? Or should I add up the original DP to all mortgage payments we made while it was a primary residence and use that number as the total investment? What is the correct way of doing this? Thank you.