All Forum Posts by: Steve Moody

@J. Bradley N. There seems to be some conflicting info. According to this site they've extneded to 2018 https://www.portlandoregon.gov/bds/article/569789

Is there room for an ADU?There's at least one lender for in Portland that will refinance your home based on the ARV with an ADU, and they offer up to 90% ARV for owner occupied.

Then you can collect rent while still living there, and when you move you'll be able to rent the main house. 

I agree with @Mike F.  It's a Honda, pay it off and drive it into the ground (do basic maintenance yourself, it's not as hard as the dealers want you to believe). In 5 years you'll have a car that has 300k miles on it, then you can sell it to someone on BP who loves driving old beaters :) Buying a total POS and expecting reliable (and comfortable) 70 minute drives isn't the best strategy IMO. If you have the cash pay it off today, if you don't have it all, think about paying it down as much as you can and then try to refi the loan. 

@Randy Johnston I'm mostly interested in west side burbs (Beaverton, Tigard, Hillsboro, etc) as well as further out (Sherwood, Newberg, Forest Grove). I've mostly been trolling the MLS for multi-family, but I'm not at all opposed to a SFH in those areas.

@Mike Nuss, thanks for that bit of perspective. I think us beginners get caught up with the now, rather than the future potential. I'm ok with low, or zero cash flow now, if it's projected to get better (and I believe that it is in this area) 

@Kris Langford I'm in the exact same phase you are right now. I've looked at trying to buy and hold locally in the greater Portland area, and there's a bit of a sellers market frenzy going on that has people selling duplexes for $600k that bring in $2700 in rent. If I had the cash to make that break even, why the heck would I be letting it rest in real estate with basically 0% CoC returns? There are a lot of investors in Portland who are not at all interested in cash flow, and are in it for the speculation.

I've also looked at turn-key out of state, and while it seems like you can get cash flow with minimal down (compared to west coast) my biggest reluctance is with appreciation barely matching inflation. Like @Melissa Dorman said, you're paying someone else to find, flip, rent, and manage. You could make a lot more doing it all yourself, but you can't do that here without lots of cash, and you can't do that there without moving. Weighing the costs and risks I'm leaning towards out-of-state, but I'm not completely ruling out local either. I think I'd have to find a turd covered jewel to make it work in Portland though . 

I've yet to see a property on MLS in Portland that will cash flow with only 20% down. That's taking into account taxes, maintenance, capex, management, etc (actual expenses). Usually you're in the negative a few hundred a month per door.

If you find something off market that needs a lot of work, and pay all cash you can cash flow in Portland. So it is possible, just not with only 20%. I'm looking out of state for cash flow at the moment 

@Account Closed I was immediately thinking ADU as well when you described the large garage in back. @Derrick Aragon (not sure why it won't tag him) is a BP member in Portland who's apparently done a lot of ADU builds, so he may be able to help answer some of your questions.

@Jessica Vollendorf I  suppose it depends on the type of rental and location, but I know someone who posted a Beaverton house on Zillow then took it down 30 minutes later because she already had too many responses to deal with (I think she had 10 responses in that time and she found her reenter out of that 10). I'm not sure, but maybe you could post the ad as it's worded, and "x" out the details to avoid it being a deleted as an advertisement? 

On your Zillow listing, did you have good pictures. How is it priced? Maybe contact a PM or two to make sure you're pricing it right (too high or low could be a problem) 

 I think it's highly dependent on the industry you're in. I moved here from SoCal in 2007 and my salary didn't take a hit (it went up slightly). I often get recruiters sending me jobs done in Orange County with salaries that I wouldn't take here in Portland, let alone down there. Part of the problem with SoCal is that you need two incomes to barely live above the poverty line, and two very good incomes to live in the shrinking middle class.  

@Christopher B., so he quoted a price, did the work, then complained that it was 1/2 of what he though he should have been paid? Regardless of whether or not his prices is right, or yours, it sounds like he won't be in business long if he has trouble estimating a simple job such as this.