All Forum Posts by: Troy Smith

Bend is a tricky place to invest. You can do very well here on flips if you time it right, but you've got to be good because there's a lot of potential to get hurt if you time it wrong. My thought is that it may not be a good place for beginning investors. But i don't know anything, i'm just learning myself and don't own anything yet. I've been watching for a while though and it's tough to find high-rent/low-cost combos that meet the 1% rule. Things are always changing here though. Right now rental vacancies are super low and rents are going up and up. Prop values are going up again too (another bubble?) and there is some fuss over short-term vacation rentals and their affects on community and prop values.

The economy is better than it was, but there's still not a lot of depth to it. What kind of work would you be looking for? It can be pretty difficult to find a good job here. A lot of the work is in tourism and service... low paid jobs. A lot of people here choose self-employment and find a way to make a living.

There's a mh here in Bend, OR on hudhomes in a fairly good location in town, on a fairly large lot for in-town (.45 acre). The home is old (1980 according to listing) and in rough shape. It's 1754 sf 3/2 and has a decent floorplan and large kitchen. If it were a stick-built house i'd jump on the deal and rehab it. But it's an old mh so i doubt it's worth fixing all the busted up cabinets and drawers, replacing finishes and floors, etc. It's listed at $95k but i think it will go for less. It would probably rent for 900-1200 depending on how good/bad it looks inside. I'd live in it myself if it were fixed up. The neighborhood will almost certainly be developed eventually into much nicer houses. THat has already happened all around it, and is happening in other parts of town as well. This lot may be big enough for 2 or 3 homes when that time comes.

It's attractive to me because of the location and large lot, but the house is pretty bad. Good houses in adjacent neighborhoods go for $200-400k+.

I'm wondering if it would make sense to fix up a bit, or to drag the house to the dump and put a nicer used mh there, or ....? Or just to pass because it's not quite right. 

How should i approach this?

I edited my last post to add to it, and it looks like you posted at the same time as i was editing. Anyway, you're right about the hammering, and the comeback. 

I bought my residence in 2007 for 300k (bad timing, face-palm!) and it's been worth far less than that since then, until now. I am just now selling it for....drumroll.... 300k. 

@jay hinrichs I'm surprised you say Bend. I live in Bend and am interested in buying rentals. I've been watching for a year or so and don't see many properties that would do very well as rentals. There is huge potential for appreciation if you time it right here, and big losses if you don't. But as far as buy-and-hold strategies, it doesn't seem like a very appealing market to me, due to high purchase prices and not particularly high rents.

The college will bring in renters, for sure, but will probably drive property values even higher also. I'm not sure what the net effect will be. We've recently had very low (<1%) vacancy rates and a spike in rents, but I think it will ease. There's a lot of building happening again. It's a very volatile/unstable market and economy here. If you're clever enough here you can probably make a fortune. For a simpleton like me, it's a bit daunting to try to predict how things will go. 

To my mind, a more appealing buy-and-hold market would be a very stable and predictable one. 

Ahh, i see now. So it would pay back that part of the loan, but not the full balance. I didn't get it before. 

Nice job bro. Two questions:

1. Who the heck are Fred and Ethel?

2. I'm not sure I quite understand what you mean when you say: "With the remaining balance on our loan we will likely pay back the family member who originated the loan."

One idea is to go to any auctions that are happening in your area, at the courthouse or wherever they do it there. Anyone there will be someone who will be at least somewhat useful to talk to, network with and maybe even mentor you.

Hi Ben, Is that in DRW? I've seen a couple deals on mobile homes that might work out well, but i don't know enough about them (as opposed to regular houses) to feel comfortable investing there without more knowledge.

PS - join us at the monthly REI club meetings in Bend and Redmond! See here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/26668142576/

Hi Bryan, thanks for posting. I live in Bend as well and I'm just beginning to learn about real estate investing. You may already know that there are a couple of REI clubs in central oregon. One in Bend and one in Redmond, they meet on the 2nd (redmond) and 4th (bend) thursdays of each month. Let me know if you want more info. It'd be great if you came.

Welcome! I'm born-n-raised in Oregon but still had to google Selma to see where it is. Then i remembered that i've been there! I camped on the Illinois River just west of there, absolutely gorgeous!

Where are you looking to invest?