Find a professional you can work with to supplement what you know, much like finding an attorney for a particular type of case within a certain jurisdiction.

I have also seen appraisers use a calculation based on the unit's rents and the area's average gross rent multiplier as a supplement to the comps. 

Or are you looking for a nice place in a great area and just want to supplement your income?

I was a police officer here for 18 years, doing investing on the side to supplement my future pension, but recently things have really started taking off and it overtook my full time job, both in time and pay, so I resigned and am now doing full time investing.My main strategies have been holding rentals, and more recently flips (with very extensive rehabs).

This makes it that much more important to supplement my income so I can be there for my family.

That being said I believe you can make money in the Portland area, you just need to be extremely picky and you'll definitely want to plan on having supplemental income.

I know a rare few people who make a living doing it . . . though it can provide some nice supplemental income.I believe that a well equipt real estate investor is one that has a multitude of tools in their tool-belt.

I grew up watching my dad buy foreclosed fixer uppers which he held and self managed and still owns 20 years later and he uses as supplemental income.

I am new to investing and would like to use REI as a tool in the future to help supplement my income.

I was fascinated by Deal Dog as a supplement to other methods of finding houses but now I'm concerned about the accuracy and how current the information may or may not be (after reading through the thread).