Hi Joe, A key part of my formula is having one partner with a lot more experience than me. That was especially helpful in the early days. So the key things that I watch are price per door, cap rate and location. We have been buying mainly 70's to 80's type buildings and price per door has been (at least up till 5 years ago) in the 60Kish range and cap rates around mid 6's (if memory serves me right and also based on just a few purchases). Hard to find those cap rates now and I didn't think they were that great 5 years ago. West Portland and Beaverton - where you are is good if you own property now but expensive to buy. We have a property there right now that is doing quite well and we bought our first one there 8 years ago and wish we hadn't sold it. Got burned on cash flow with a property in Newberg because utilities doubled in 5 years. Turns out this is quite common for smaller communities - at least the ones I am familiar with in Oregon. Also property taxes in the smaller communities can kill you. I just backed out of a deal here in Lebanon partially because taxes were astronomical - almost twice on a per door basis as our property in Beaverton while producing less rent. Even I can tell that is the wrong formula. Thanks for writing. Good luck.
