All Forum Posts by: Kurt Lane

Hi Paul, if you’re interested in discussing you can DM me. My company, Chroma Property Management, operates primarily in the Portland Metro area but can handle Salem as well.

@Jeff S. I was speaking with a friend who owns a brokerage yesterday and they said current inventory is at 2 weeks. Crazy!

Thanks @Jeff S. I've been teaching classes for RHA about local and state ordinances. I do the same for brokerages throughout the area via title companies. Chroma is also set up as a CE provider. We manage around 70 properties currently. 

I manage both single-family and multi-unit throughout the Portland Metro and beyond (Hillsboro, Beaverton, Lake Oswego, Oregon City, etc). Aside from a 20-plex I manage, we're using the low barrier criteria for all of our properties. For property managers it's not really scalable to use a different criteria and I haven't had issues with the quality of applicants or tenants since implementation last March. We're at 100% on-time payments for all new properties leased since May. With the low barrier screening criteria you really have to focus on how you market, position, and message a property to get the type of applicants you want. For us it's all about marketing and pricing properly. In the property management world we're required to accept the regulations as they are and keep our owners and properties in compliance. That being said, most of the new owners I'm working with are people who formerly self-managed and have decided that the amount of specialized knowledge required to navigate Portland's regulatory environment isn't worth the trouble.

I would recommend looking into Buildium (https://www.buildium.com/). It's one of the most popular options for PM software and I don't believe they have minimums on units. That being said, a full-suite might be overkill for just one property and not cost-effective with their pricing plans. That's an issue you'll run into with all software until you scale up. Most cities have rental housing / landlord associations with options for leases and all of the forms you'll need. I would recommend looking into that and not just using a standard lease you find online. Your most cost-effective option would be to use local forms (applications, lease, required addendums and notices) and then find a good solution for running background checks. Check out https://www.mysmartmove.com/. It's owned by TransUnion and you'd be able to charge back to cost to applicants. It's build into Buildium if you decide to go that route.

Best of luck!

I would recommend the courses that Portland Community College offer. They're online only and the instructors provide a bit more local context then you'd get otherwise.

https://climb.pcc.edu/real-estate