All Forum Posts by: Nate Lindquist

Hey all,

I'm looking for a portfolio lender in Portland that will allow me to use the equity in my current investment property to purchase additional investments. Any guidance or advice would be greatly appreciated.  

I'd certainly be interested. 

You can scan craigslist/rentometer/padmapper etc. to find comparable rents. Assuming you can rent an apartment 800/month, when in fact 600/month is the going rate, can blow up your analysis. Also, it's generally best to assume conservatively.

I can't speak for other markets, but Portland has a large pool of VC money coming in purchasing the property for 100% cash. In this situation, your ROI is a function of rental income, and appreciation. Depending on the property, this is often times greater than a return you'll get in a stock, or even a high-yield bank account.

Hi Dawn,

Congrats on finding a property off market! That’s quite the feat in Portland. I’ve used rocketlawyer.com for my lease agreements and really like it, because the contract is much more inclusive than what you will find in the Rental Housing Alliance. As for rental application, the Rental Housing Alliance is great.

If your property was built pre-1978, you will want to give the tenants the Lea Based Paint Disclosure Pamphlet. I generally give my tenants a copy, and have them initial a second copy that I keep in my files. Additionally, if you haven’t been a landlord in Portland before, you will want to consider having your tenants sign a Ventilation, Mold and Mildew Addendum with the lease agreement.

Good luck!

Ask if the seller would finance.  You could offer him favorable terms (i.e. high interest rate, large down payment), with the mutual understanding that you will refinance with an institution as soon as you are eligible.  It would potentially help both of you out by getting him cash now, steady cashflow from your monthly payment, and you get your foot in the door to the real estate world.

Hey Seth,

Welcome to the Pacific North West.  You seem to be running into the same problems as most investors out here.  I'm a native Oregonian, and understand your frustration with trying to find a "good deal" inside Multnomah County.  One of the difficulties with moving into a new state is the lack of knowledge of the surrounding markets, and what parts of town or the outskirts are improving, and will continue to improve.  That being said, there are neighborhoods just outside the city that have HUGE upside potential, and still provide opportunities to purchase properties at a discount.  

In your search for a "great deal" in combination with your willingness to house hack, you are provided a luxury that many aren't, and that luxury is that your "great deal" could simply be a reduced mortgage payment in comparison to rental rates. What I mean by that is that if your monthly gross expenses (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, PMI, etc), are less than what you would be paying for rent in a given market, you have found a great deal, well at least by my definition. This is particularly true in the Portland Metro are, where the rental market is expected to get more and more competitive, driving up rents. You could be locking in low "rent expense" for you and your family, while increasing rents annually on your tenants. While you might not be finding the home-run that you are hoping for, you are getting a foot in the door of one of the hottest real estate markets in America. My thought is that there's nothing wrong with getting rich slowly.

FHA into a 4 until multi family. Seems to be the best way to leverage your 20k. After the property appreciates, you can refi into a conventional to remove PMI. Just a thought, and it's what I did, so I like the strategy. Plus a year in we are now getting paid to live in one unit because the other three rents pay more than the mortgage.

That’s unfortunate. The landlord can use the security deposit for any damages that the tenants were responsible for, but ideally you won’t have to use it until the tenant is moving out, and even then that the tenants would have taken good enough care of the property to not have to use any. If the tenants had caused enough damages that they could justify spending $2,000 on repairs, they should have been evicted. Assuming the repairs were all legitimate, you won’t be responsible for repaying any of the $2,000, as that is the intent of a security deposit, but you’ll have to be able to provide proof that the funds were spend only on those repairs.

Great questions Sergiu. The tenant will be liable for damages per their previous leas agreement. When you purchase the property, lease agreements, deposits, and prepaid rents all get transferred to you as the new owner. Even if the deposits don’t cover the incurred damages, you can sue for the difference. While tenant law in Oregon is relatively tenant-friendly, damages are generally relatively easy for you to recoup.

Because the other tenant is on a month-to-month, you can just knock on their door and hand them the new lease agreement, as their current lease is new each month. The thing to keep in mind is the length of time the tenant has been in the unit. If it’s over 1 year, you need to wait 60 days from the time of notice to make a change to the terms. If the tenant has been there for less than a year, you only need to give them 30 days notice.

One pieces of advice when living next to a tenant, you want to keep the relationship professional, but friendly. Things can get really difficult if you become friends with a tenant, but you also don’t want to have an adversarial relationship with the tenant.