Portland, OR house - sell, rent, short-term rent?

[Justin Cloyd]

I'm looking at options for my current residence (3 BR, 2 BA house) in Portland, OR. I'm not sure if it makes sense to sell and invest elsewhere, or rent it out as a long term rental. (Portland doesn't allow whole 3 BR houses to be rented out as short term rentals.) We have about $190k left on the current mortgage at 3.75% interest and about $360k in equity. I'll need about $200k to buy the next house, so if I'm not selling I need to get a home equity loan. There are a few questions I think BP can help with:

1. Does anyone have any legal advice for managing a long term rental single family house in Portland? (Attorney and PM contacts would also help.) I know it's a very tenant friendly city, so I'm worried about the legal side of things and I want to get everything set up the right way.

2. Getting the right terms on the home equity loan is the key to keeping it as a rental from a cash flow standpoint, keeping the favorable existing 3.75% mortgage intact. Any recommended investor friendly Portland lenders out there that I should talk to?

3. The alternative to renting out this house is that I could take about $100k from the sale and invest it elsewhere. I'm comfortable with new development, or in Ohio rental markets (Columbus, Cincy, Dayton metro areas). Obviously understanding these investment alternatives would be on a case-by-case basis but my gut says the low interest rate on the existing mortgage makes the existing house the most fruitful deal since the Portland market has been appreciating faster than Ohio markets for the past 20 years. Development might also make sense if construction and land prices pull back a bit. What are other people's thoughts on this option?

I'll gladly repay any advice or suggested contacts with architectural advice (~15 years experience, mostly in new multifamily apartments).

Thanks in advance everyone!