I am specifically targeting the Greater Portland, Oregon area to invest and flip in. I spent a few weeks in Portland earlier this year to get to know the area better, but the market and weather is so much different from Southern California. I love the character of each house and neighborhood. What's been the best way to hunt down off-market or wholesale deals in the area? What are customary agent fees? What are the upcoming areas? What typical mistakes do flippers make within the area?
Would love to learn from your experience if you're local! Thanks, JJ
There are an abundance of wholesalers chasing deals so I am pretty sure someone will respond to you on this thread on getting on their lists. I am seeing a couple of ways people getting these deals. Mainly snail mail, setting up signs around town, and then utilizing SEO with a website. Personally I think the latter is the best. We now have Zillow making cash offers as well.
Regarding upcoming areas; I think you could consider Vancouver an upcoming area as most of our neighbors south of us in Portland have no clue of how nice it is up here. Regarding specific areas, if you follow areas tied to the high schools receiving high marks (7 or higher) OR focus around the new urban centers being built around Clark County you should be fine. My personal believe is focus on the high quality and established neighborhoods because the entire area is unknown from a bigger macro perspective. It is all the out of state people that will be driving up the investments over the longterm, not the local individuals moving on up. The price, no taxes, quality of life is hard to beat in our little area of Clark County if you are digging the PNW.