Tenant laws are why I'm leaving Portland

Tenant laws are why I'm leaving Portland

Flipper/Rehabber · Roswell, NM · Member since 2014 · 74 posts · 65 votes

This has been discussed, but I thought I'd share my experience in Portland, Oregon with my rental property and why I'm trying to get out as quickly as possible to get my money working for me. Just need to vent!

I live out of state, so when my tenants began not paying due to Covid, I asked my property manager if he could help. I was essentially told there was nothing they could do (and he told me I was "lucky" to have received rent in May).  Can't ask them why they aren't paying, can't verify employment, can't do much.

Several weeks later I asked him to follow up and was told "there's not much point.  If they wanted to pay, they would be paying". I asked if they'd adopted a process for contacting tenants who weren't paying and was told no.  Then he went on to inform me that new legislation prevents them for contacting tenants to ask about payments or to suggest payment plans.  

So, I have to wait them out until the 6 month moratorium ends, at which point I need to wait another 6 months before I can demand rent. 

Well fortunately for me (or so I thought), they are on a month-to-month lease.  Not so fast...in Portland, month to month means that they can give me 30 days notice but I have to give them 90 days as well as pay them 4,500 for relocation.  And forget about keeping the deposit as a form of rent collection...This is brutal.

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Real Estate Broker · Portland, OR · Member since 2019 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes
6y

Unfortunately, I think eviction moratorium are getting to be politicians it-cost-me-nothing-to-show-I-care-about-you law since they can count how many tenant vs landlord votes there are.  Portland City Council steps more to the left and further down the education scale with each election.

I can't honestly tell someone to buy in Portland proper unless it is a SCREAMING deal.  On the plus side, the residential market is still pretty strong - Assuming you can get your tenant out.

However, I think the market outside Portland in OR is still pretty good for prospect of income growth.

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  • Rental Property Investor · Gresham, OR · Member since 2018 · 36 posts · 19 votes
    6y

    @Benjamin Kirkpatrick

    Ah yes! There are definitely more art galleries around than previous years.

    I have lived here my whole life and have seen Portland transform from the City of Roses to the City of Tents and Trash. It has all happened so quickly. That being said Portland is still a desirable City for people to be in. It’s close to the ocean, rivers, hiking, fishing, mountains etc. So there will always be a demand for people to live in Portland due to its geographic location. For us personally the city combined with the strict tenant laws is too high of a risk for us to invest. If you venture 45 minutes in any direction away from Portland you will find much more affordable opportunities that don’t come with such high risk tenant laws.

    There are a lot of apartments popping up what seems to be overnight. I can’t speak for all of them, but I know a good portion are affordable housing units to help combat Portland’s homeless problem.

    Home values in Portland are the highest I have ever seen. As long as there’s no crash coming in the future I don’t see values going down at all.

  • Member since 2021 · 5 posts · 1 vote
    5y

    I own a duplex in Portland and when my tenants stopped paying I did contact them but I had to attached a flyer explaining their rights. I then had them call 211 to have a non profit pay their back rent through emergency covid relief funds. PM me if you want details on the flyer info.


    If worst comes to worst you can apply for the state to pay 80% of your back rent of you forgive 20%. It sounds like your PM needs to try harder to find solutions though I know things were more unclear a couple of months back. 

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