I was planning to live in one for 2 years and hopefully build up equity and purchase another one.

Mostly build-up since the 1980s, so not much is very old over there. 

In the future, we would like to get into multifamily to build up a passive income stream.

Also, I need the equity as I didn't have time to flip houses to build up reserves. 

@Sam Marcos You can always wholesale the deals you find to build up some cash.

Plus...escape velocity...Episode 113 – Jay Papasan - Very practical slow and steady adviceEpisode 221 - Tim Shiner - his concept of equity build up and "shearing the sheep" shows some of the flexibility of real estate vs a 401k Last but not least, I also recommend all the tax advice given by my fellow CPAs on the BP Podcast.

If you are looking to build up your BP cred and try to build your "units" go for it. 

By planting these fixed seeds that are and continue to pay dividend, it stabilized my income flows and concurrently allowed me to build up reserves for additional purchases. 

To be honest, I'm a little worried about investing in King County in general.

Its like a car, after 200,000 miles its just toast.The more "miles" your house has the more ongoing repairs and the faster you have to build up for the major rehab.Once you understand this, you will look at deals differently.