All Forum Posts by: Cory Carlson

If your expense load is correct and you really do cashflow $24,000 a year, your invested equity is $900,000. ($1.65M value - $750k) mortgage. That is a low cash on cash (1.3%) and even lower After-tax do to nominal tax benefits from the minimal interest expense deductions. Plus, you're under leveraged. Take your lucky break in appreciation and put your $800k (+ or -) into a better performing 5+ unit multifamily or commercial building. The 4 engines that drive return on investment will be working together. You will get better return on your equity, tax benefits, equity paydown and be able to buy a higher value property when properly leveraged. Buying, holding and hoping (appreciation) is not a real estate strategy. Appreciation is the cherry on top. You should be able to achieve and After-tax + Principle pay down on a turn-key apartment building in the 8.5-10% range realistically and that is BEFORE appreciation. 

HB2250 requires the listing broker to refrain from presenting "love letters" when they are received. This is to avoid discrimination and breaking any fair housing laws. 

So if your self representing I suppose the only law you are potentially breaking are related to fair housing? If you do not have a license, I guess that's hard to enforce/proof if you did field a letter? 

HB 2550 B Staff Measure Summary writes, 

"The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing-related transactions based on a person’s race,
color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or physical or mental disability. State and local governments
may also prohibit housing discrimination but only in ways that add to or strengthen federal prohibitions; Oregon
for example, also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and source of income. In the course of
negotiations between buyers and sellers of real property, a number of regulated documents and required
disclosures are exchanged, but there is nothing to prohibit a buyer from reaching out directly to communicate
with a seller outside of this exchange. Buyers often want to connect with sellers, or provide more information
than is required, in an effort to distinguish themselves from other buyers, particularly when
the market to purchase a home is very competitive.
House Bill 2550 B requires agents for sellers in real property transactions to reject non-customary
communications to avoid the potential for unlawful selection of a buyer based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, national origin, marital status, or familial status."

Congratulations and welcome to Portland. Exciting to see your hard work and determination come to fruition. 

@Zac Lindquist We use and recommend our investor clients to Newberg Tax. They have been in the biz for a long time and an excellent resource for my entire family for 20+ years. 

Welcome to the forums.

Bigger Pockets requested I write a blog post on this exact question. Should be published late next week. Feel free to send me a PM and connection request to ensure you get it. 

Many are turned off by Portland due to Multnomah counties and city of Portland tenant/landlord laws. While they are certainly strict, management is worth their weight in gold in navigating that. There are still good investment opportunities on the multifamily and commercial property types. Buy/hold single family or fix and flips are hard to come by, but respectively not my cup of tea. Oregon does have state-wide rent control (Senate Bill 608) in place. 

Right now is a good time to already own real estate in Portland. Market is hot and there is a lot of "dead equity" sitting in properties. Depending on your available capital I have been pushing the partnership/syndication strategy to acquire better higher yielding properties with more upside. Pool your money and acquire properties you otherwise could not! 

Small-plex deals are trading at very low cap rates and there are a lot of buyers. I wrote on a duplex last week that had 15 offers. 

How much capital do you have to work with? The forced appreciation play in small-plex's has a few key points that the traditional SFH BRRRR does not. Not only does making the building need to look pretty and field high paying renters, being able to weight the income-approach valuation is important.

2-4 unit properties are convoluted with more than one valuation method being both the income and comparable sales approach. In my opinion, you're comparing apples to oranges here. A 20-unit building will be valued based on the income approach alone and largely valued due to the returns. Market driven appreciation is very subjective as opposed to forced appreciation through rent bumps and improving NOI. My 20 unit listings seem to go just as quick as the 2-4 unit ones in the PNW markets.

@Chris John Take a peak at Equity Advantages website (*I have no affiliation with them, except my firm has personally used their services for 15 years). Their website is packed full of great information and you can always call and get your questions answered. I also recommend you work with a broker who is experienced in multiple property dispositions and exchanges. You're right to be concerned on the timelines. I consider it more of an art to put the contingencies and back up plans in place to exchange out of several properties and into a larger one. 

Hi Gabby, 

Welcome to the forums! You have asked a lot of questions that with some digging through the search bar you will find have been covered many times.

1) Talk to a lender when you're closer to your buy timeline and they will outline the different financing options ranging from 3.5%+ down FHA to 5%+ conventional financing and the pro/cons of each. They will also be able to help account for closing costs and give your broker direction depending on how much cash you have saved up to incorporate this into the offer (ie. in closing costs)

2) There are online platforms as well as local agencies that have state specific lease agreement templates. NW Multifamily is a big one that may be worth cruising around the site (*I have no affiliation with them)

3) This is a lender question and it sort of gets figured in the pre-qualification process. If you intend to occupy and rent out the rooms do not convolute your acquisition with investment real estate return metrics. It gets messy drawing the line in the sand between investment and personal use/utility. Buy something that has rentability and the adjoining rooms/unit will subsidize your monthly mortgage. Any low down payment acquisition in the Portland market is unlikely to cashflow as a rental anyways after accounting for debt service. 

Good luck in your search, these forums can be a great resource if you're serious about building wealth and using real estate to do it. 

Great build! Love to see the improvements in the Keizer market. I have done a couple small transactions down there this year. Let me know if you need any financing!