All Forum Posts by: James Swift

Hey Mackenzie, 

Robin Hubbard works for Bella casa here in Mac. She is very knowledgable and responsive. We just used her to buy our primary residence. She is a principal broker and owned her own company for over 11 years before going to Bella casa. I have heard great things about Chris too but we used one of the brokers he had working for him initially and he was the most incompetent lazy realtor I have ever dealt with.  By the way the market is getting crazy out here too. We offered asking on our house the day it was on the market and got lucky. Places are going in days out here for more than I think they are worth. Unless you are buying high end or houses with tons of work the market is rough for buyers.

Sorry about that Collin,

I was more referencing Mcminnville. Salem is obviously larger and I think that it is easier for people to find housing there. Mcminnville has more of a shortage. The college here is small so you are more likely renting to families than you are students. The economy appears to be picking up quickly out here and coming from Sonoma county CA I am starting to see lots of similarities.  Long term I think  MAC is a good place to invest.  I think in the future it will be a good hub connecting the coast and the valley to those in Portland and the wine industry is only getting larger.

HI Collin,

Evan is right about Mac and Salem, They are definitely more affordable with less competition. We are still getting 100K houses out here. They NEED lots of work but the rental market here is good with limited supply. You have a good mix of college students from Linfield and locals competing for a limited number so the monthly rents are on the higher end for what I would expect in the SFR realm. Not a whole lot of Multifamily. The ones that pop up tend to be in the not so good areas and the larger multifamily appear slightly over priced but I think that is pretty normal for larger multi's right now.

Thank you Jessica for the advice. Im in the process of studying for my license.  Yes, a mentor is definitely something I  hope to find.  The difficulty I am having right now is not being able to view houses as they come on the market. My intentions are not to use an agent just so that I can get viewings. If I am going to work with an agent it would be helpful if they were able to educate me along the way. I have worked with agents in the past who I used only for the showings and offers and it wasn't as fulfilling an experience for me.  I have purchased my own residence before but purchasing an investment property is different and having someone work with me who has a knowledge base and experience in that realm, I fell would be more advantageous.  I could be dead wrong though!

But yes the long term goal is to get my license so that I can do the leg work and research myself.

Thank you Jay for the information.  I figured the geographical distance may cause some more consideration on my part.  I have sent out a few email to agents in those different areas and I am just waiting to hear back.  I was hoping that there would be individuals on BP who may be able to recommend some Realtors they have used. 

I am looking for an investment friendly Realtor in the Willamette Valley. This includes a Realtor who invests themselves and can help walk me through the process being that I am new to real estate investing. I am interested in looking at houses for flips or long term holds in the Salem, Portland, area.  This includes small cities and towns within an hours drive. Some of the towns I am considering are Mcminnville, Newberg, Sheridan, Amity, Carlton, Sherwood, Beaverton, and Tigard. 

Thanks Wayne for the information. That is how it appeared based on the information I was able to find but it was not completely obvious to me. Thank you for clarifying.

I am having a little bit of trouble navigating the Oregon licensing. I am looking into getting licensed to both manage properties as well as conduct sales. However in that state of Oregon the broker, Principal Broker and property management license are all separate. As far as I can tell you may only possess one license at a time in the state. Do one of those three licenses allow you to both sell and manage properties for other individuals? I would assume the Principal Broker license would but I have not been able to find that exact information spelled out anywhere on the government website. 

I am a 31 year old who is interested in investing in real estate with the goal of living off my investments and leaving behind the typical 9-5 job. I am happily married and have a young son. I recently relocated to North West Oregon from California and am very happy up here. I was told about bigger pockets by a friend who has many investment properties and I decided to give it a try. I would love to make some contacts up here and possibly meet some investment partners. Feel free to drop me a line.