All Forum Posts by: Cuong Nguyen

@Christian Wathne Hi Christian, sorry for digging this post up. It's just that I've run into the exact similar situation like yours, so I'm just curious how you handled it.

I'm also in CA and have a rental in Portland. The crawlspace has water build up which leads to a bunch of problems. I was also suggested by my contractor to just extend the downspout and install sump pump. The quotes I have are 5k (basic, just sump pump) and 8k (sump pump + trench, from well known specialists in the area). Hope it helps.

Wow thank you for the responses, these are all super helpful!

@Mathew Wray & @Evan Polaski

Your strategies for boots on the ground sound solid.

Right now I'd rather proceed with the work than waiting. With that, I do need someone to verify the work closely. The two contractors I had are reputable, so I'm not that worry about them. But I have a handyman who will do 50% of the rehab (light cosmetic update), and so I'll need to supervise him closely.

It seems like the best person for this job is somebody with a keen eye on spotting issues with construction work and be willing to come to the house one or two times week. These are great criteria, I'll reach out to my agent and property manager for referrals.

@Chris Levarek

I chose Portland because of various reasons. I think Portland has a fairly strong and diverse economy, big and strong employers are Nike and Intel. Lots of tech companies in Silicon Valley have offices or data centers there. The city is also very friendly to immigrants and young people, so it has attracted and continue to attract this type of population. There is also a high demand for single family houses right now. There are lots of cons as well (e.g., high tax, not as landlord friendly), but all in all I think this area is attractive enough for me to buy properties and hold. I hope prices will go up long term (I'm looking at 10-20 years range).

Price-wise, it's much more affordable compared to the Bay Area where I live. The market is also cooling right now, so I think it's a great time to buy.

Note that these are my subjective and personal opinions. Again I'm very new at this. I also picked Portland because I've lived there for 10 years for school so I also know the area fairly well :-).

I also like your suggestions. I'm definitely interested in finding partners and expanding my network. The people I've worked with on this deal were fantastic and I'm eager to meet more real estate folks in this area. I'm hoping to do another deal next year if this one can rent out well (fingers crossed).

Hey everyone! 

My first post here. My wife and I have recently closed on a property in Portland Oregon. This is our fist out-of-state deal (we both live in California), so we are super excited. We are planning to fix up the property and rent it out. We have already found a property manager and have had contractor bids lined up.

Now I think it's important that we can check the construction progress, so our original plan was to move the whole family up to Portland for about a month to oversee it. We have two kids (one two years old and another two months old) with no help from families, so that seems like the best option for us. However, now that the virus outbreak is rapidly getting worse, we really don't want to risk getting the whole family outside. Just the thought of having to rent a hotel or putting my kids outside have already scared me 

I'd love to get some advice or feedback from you guys on what we should do in this situation? Ideally we'd love to stay at home and still being able to manage the rehab. But realistically we don't know how to do that.

A couple things we were considering:

**I heard about boots on the ground. But I'm curious how would you find anyone reliable enough to help during this time? Are there services that you can hire?

**We asked our property manager. He'd usually offer such kind of service, but right now he's extremely overwhelmed and has stopped taking on that responsibility.

Anything else we should try? We'll probably get our deed recorded with the county this Friday and hoping to get construction starting next Monday. 

Thanks!