All Forum Posts by: Rusty Thompson

Welcome to bigger pockets. I'm down in Salem, if your ever down this way I would be more than happy to take you up on your offer.

I would be interested as well, the last on was a lot of fun

Thanks for the correction @David C. . It's still early and I'm suffering from a cold... so a little cloudy. Its actually 75% 10% & 15%. So I guess you would be looking at a 600000$ property... Probably should have checked that out before ***-u-me-ing that I was thinking straight.

From your first post it doesn't sound like you plan on using REI as a way to escape your day job. If you plan on working until retirement & iIf you don't plan on self managing I would recommend you think big. Maybe talk with Joel Owens about how you can leverage that 100k into a larger property. He has several times talked about a 75%-10%-5% deal, where the bank funds 75%, owner carries back 10% and you bring 5% to the table. Then you can acquire something in the 2m range where onsite management makes sense.

I think the class of property I would be willing to accept depends on the class of location I am investing in. I live in a fairly low crime city so I would be willing to buy (and I have) apartments in the worst areas if the numbers look good. That being said. It will probably also be a investment I plan on trading up to something better later.

I agree with @Mike Nuss about Oregon City. I remember looking at housing prices up there a couple years ago and saw ratios close to what Salem is showing. I think it is a natural reflex to think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Sometimes its true, sometimes its not. 

I agree with 

I think some creative use of town assets could bring resources into these failing towns. Over the next decades assisted living facilities will be booming. I'm sure there are a lot of older generations who would rather spend there last years in some of these smaller towns.

I think the best advice I could give people in Portland is that "Oregon is more than Portland". Property prices are 2-4x the prices for the rest of the state & the rents are pretty close to the same. Depending on what your are looking for there are several more rural areas around Portland that people commute into Portland from that would cash flow. If you want to move even farther out, look for towns that have good rent-purchase price, but still show some growth in the market. Once you have targeted the areas that you would like to invest in, start looking for the worse houses in the best neighbor hoods. Those are the  gold mines. 

I personally invest in Salem. I have purchased in order, 1 MLS, 1 Auction, 2 Shortsale, 1 MLS & 1 Auction. So its important, if your are not going to direct market, to keep your eyes open for great deals and snap them up. Another piece of advice I can offer is to do more than put lipstick on a pig. If you can learn to find the hidden potential in a property you are more likely to be successful & find deals others haven't.

I also feel we are seeing banks finally taking action on properties that have sat vacant. I have always suspected that the large banks created models to tell them when the right time to sell. With the sudden inflation of housing prices they probably hit their numbers and are finally cleaning house. I have personally watched houses that have sat vacant for at least 3 years suddenly show up on the MLS. It will be interesting how it affects the market this winter.