It is driving me nuts.

We are building a colonial style house 4bed/3 bath approx 2,500 sq ft...any idea how much that would cost soup to nuts all brand new including the service ?

The stories like these inspires a newbie real estate investor like me to invest on a good property and wait for the time when it become fruitful.

And was your search in Beacon fruitful, and is a VRBO a decent possibility there?

I really wanna add to my portfolio and start acquiring more units (currently have 4 multi family properties) but the market in the greater Seattle area is nuts, so I've been looking for multi family out of state of other regions of the state.

I think the holding period would be about a year so the first year would hemorrhage cash flow (not included in the analysis above), but subsequent years would be fruitful.

@Mark Gallagher  Ryan is in France enjoying the fruits of his labor  :) @Ryan DosseyI think a HUGE part of this as well is area..

There are just to many people doing things wrong to go after the non low hanging fruit. 2. by being an active on BP, the group has self selected to care about learning their craft and thus less likely to act in a manner that gets them sued. 

2) Is the idea of running a vacation home from afar (about 2 hour drive) nuts?   

I can only guess what your cap rate will be but in hollywood, maybe 6 to 7 on a "c" class property.So for instance $100k gross yearly income, minus 50% = $50k, divided by .06= $833k as a purchase price.Now call the realtor and tell them they are nuts for listing the property at $1.1 m and you will offer $833k.Sit back and watch someone pay wayyyy to much for it and be ready when it goes distress sale!