Does the deal pencil?
Let's find out before you offer.

It moves with interest rates, submarket, property class, and condition, so any single number quoted on a website is going to be wrong by the time you read it. What we can tell you is that cap rate alone is a poor decision tool for small residential deals.

Cash-on-cash return and debt service coverage matter more, because they account for your actual financing. A 7% cap deal with expensive debt can cash flow worse than a 5.5% cap deal with a better loan. Bring us a specific property and we'll run all three.

No, and that's worth saying plainly. Modern Property Management is a separate company owned by our designated broker, Marcus Binion. Using the brokerage does not obligate you to use it, and we'll represent you exactly the same either way.

If you'd rather self-manage or use another firm, that's a legitimate choice and we'll still help you underwrite for it — we just budget your own time as a real expense line instead of a management fee.

For a pure investment property, most conventional lenders want 20–25% down and price the loan higher than an owner-occupant mortgage. That's the standard path.

The exception is owner-occupancy. If you live in one unit of a two-to-four unit property for the required period, you can often use low-down-payment financing, including FHA and VA for eligible borrowers. It's the single biggest financing advantage available to a new investor, and it only works if you actually intend to live there.

Occupied gives you income from day one and no lease-up gap, but you inherit the tenant, the rent, and the lease exactly as they are. Given Washington's cause requirements, assume you're keeping that tenant.

Vacant gives you control — you set the rent, screen your own tenant, and can renovate first — at the cost of carrying the property until it leases. We review the estoppel and lease documents carefully on occupied purchases before you commit.

Fee structures vary by firm and by portfolio size, and there's usually a monthly management fee plus a leasing fee at tenant placement. What matters more than the headline rate is what's included — maintenance coordination, inspections, notices, accounting, and how repairs get marked up.

Ask us for current terms and we'll give you the real numbers rather than a range. And underwrite for management even if you plan to self-manage; the day you want to hand it off, the deal needs to still work.

Common and workable. The main risks are underwriting from portal data instead of local knowledge, and underestimating how much the local regulatory environment differs from where you live.

We do video walkthroughs, we give you an honest read on the neighborhood block by block, and everything can be signed remotely — our designated broker holds a Washington notary commission, which simplifies the paperwork.