planning on moving to Washington from Florida but have few concerns (Seattle: for sale, real estate)

[widget007]

Hello everyone ,
Me and my Wife decided about moving to Washington State after visiting few times. We have lived in Saint Petersburg Florida for over 10 years and we are getting tired of the weather, we are originally from Europe.
My Wife has a great job with income over 100k annually. I have a used car dealership for over 8 years now with many happy customers so far .I am planning to close the business here and open something up there. We visited Seattle few times , Portland , Vancouver Wa. i noticed there are a lot of 4X4 vehicles , AWD , trucks etc. My main questions are :
1. Seattle is a huge city and iam sure there are hundreds of small car dealerships , are they selling decent cars ? i know florida state has 3 times as many residents but everybody needs new vehicles
i know its very difficult to relocate the business that far but i worked very hard for it and iam willing to do it again. Question is which city we should choose for a used car dealership ? auctions like manheim, adesa are everywhere in Florida , i know there is a manheim Seattle, portland, any other auctions with different names open to dealers only ?
2. Washington State is a beautiful state and would like to live close to great schools for my kids, i know Bellevue has great schools, but rent or properties up there are crazy expensive. Wewould have to rent for 6-12 months and after that we would have to buy something
3. We are planning to buy a big box truck and drive to Washington with all of our belongings( of course after renting a house or apartment) and take a vacation same time
4. Every state is different and does DmV in Wa offers Dealer tags etc ? are there any inspection on vehicles purchased at the dealer auctions? any lemon laws or everything is sold as is like in Florida ?
5. Was thinking to get a Wa dealer licence now i hope its easy as in Florida.

Please give us some advice about choosing a city to live so we can open a used car lot with vehicles under 40k for sale. Not writing about Wife"s job because she is a surgeon and finding a job for her wont be a problem. We really appreciate all the help !!

[homesinseattle]

Hey Guys. Sounds like a great adventure, you must be excited! I'm a Miami boy born and raised, moved to Seattle 28 years ago. A few answers for you:

-Yes, people drive nice cars, it is a prosperous area.
-Maybe try Bothell: great schools, good location, not as expensive as Bellevue.

[StealthRabbit]

Give Bremerton / Silverdale / Poulsbo a very good look. (Also has a Jr College so your kids can do free FT college rather than High School (quite popular and advantage for those headed to academic careers.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_Start

Great communities with a very great hospital / medical industry. AND far enough away from Seattle metro to have better prices on homes, MUCH less traffic, very nice quality of life, and less competition for Car Sales (and a HIGH volume of sales!!! military and residents DO NOT like to drive to Seattle to buy / shop for a used car. and NO emissions required (yet).

Also very ez for you (or spouse) to Ferry to Seattle ONLY when you musty / desire... It is truly very nice to have that option. Your wife will LOVE the romantic FREE 'sunset cruise' eastbound to Seattle for a night out. Then you LEAVE SEATTLE traffic / people and retreat to your quiet nice home on Olympic peninsula. They cruise across to Victoria for delightful excursions.


Portland is TOO CLOSE to Vancouver / Camas, and VERY convenient for car shopping (I bought 3 in the last month, all from Portland area, tho I live in WA. ). Retail (including cars) is a tough business in border towns, especially sales tax free Oregon (tho cars need to be registered in WA, so WA residents end up paying it, but they bring a LOT of cars from OR. (light traffic, broad region with TONS of cars and TONS of sales (no sales tax means people trade cars often). I have 3 WA friends who run OR used car sales businesses. (their income is taxed at OR rates, but their volume is huge...) There are LOTS of dealer, so I wouldn't fight the crowds, (Tho if in Bremerton, you can come to OR to BUY your used cars, the auctions and dealers have great bargains, and resale is good. A few friends (including me) buy cars in TX and bring to OR / WA as resale revenue is much better and pays for shipping.

I actually prefer an Emission free zone (most of WA), excluding Metro

Washington Vehicle Emission Check Program - FAQ

Good luck! I think you will make a great choice! FL is getting much less desirable / very crowded / dirty / risky.

Spokane is also a great area for medical / auto sales.

[widget007]

StealthRabbit:

Thank You for the information , we do prefer a little bigger cities than the once you mentioned.
We really like Bellevue , low crime , great schools , the problem is the real estate is sooo expensive there. And i am sure renting some property on a main road for a used car lot will be probably 15k plus a month.
It will take me close to 1 year to learn the business in different State and would like to have a low expenses with the new business.
How about the sales, is everything sold as is in the Washington ? I know some states have some cooling period , and people can change their mind etc.
Sorry for so many questions but need to be prepared for everything :-)
We didnt go to Spokane yet , so maybe that would be our next stop when we visit in couple of months

[widget007]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

Hey Guys. Sounds like a great adventure, you must be excited! I'm a Miami boy born and raised, moved to Seattle 28 years ago. A few answers for you:

-Yes, people drive nice cars, it is a prosperous area.
-Maybe try Bothell: great schools, good location, not as expensive as Bellevue.

We are honestly very excited , and we are planning it right

[elkotronics]

Have you looked at Wenatchee or Bellingham yet?

[homesinseattle]

I mentioned Bothell because I thought you might like to locate your dealership near the most prosperous area Seattle and the Eastside), where more people have the money to buy $30-$40K used cars. Bothell has the good schools and is fairly close in. Other places that do that are Shoreline, Edmonds, Mukilteo, Kirkland (Juanita and Totem Lake are more affordable than Bellevue) and maybe Issaquah. These would all put you in good locations and probably decent commuting distance for your surgeon wife's job. Best wishes on the move!

[perigee]

Talking to small business owners they have a lot to complain about opening and running a business, we have a different tax system then you are probably use to.

Remember if housing is expensive, then land for operating your business is also going to be expensive. As you are looking for a rental house, start looking for commercial real estate. I know it can be hard to go from boss to an employee, but it might make sense to see if you can get some sort of senior management position at a dealer as you research the local market.

Honestly, the best person to talk to is an accountant or lawyer that is use to working with small businesses.

[widget007]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

Have you looked at Wenatchee or Bellingham yet?

We didnt go there yet, i was thinking about Bellingham , it looks like a decent size city , i know its a Oregon and there is a income sales tax, but you cant have everything that you want :-)

Thank you for the advice !!

[widget007]

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

I mentioned Bothell because I thought you might like to locate your dealership near the most prosperous area Seattle and the Eastside), where more people have the money to buy $30-$40K used cars. Bothell has the good schools and is fairly close in. Other places that do that are Shoreline, Edmonds, Mukilteo, Kirkland (Juanita and Totem Lake are more affordable than Bellevue) and maybe Issaquah. These would all put you in good locations and probably decent commuting distance for your surgeon wife's job. Best wishes on the move!

Thank you for the reply , Issaquah is small but felt really nice, we went there, not sure if used car dealership will have much traffic in that small city. i know everybody is doing internet research these days before purchasing anything, but here we always have few walk in sales a month.