New Urbanist from Portland, Oregon

New Urbanist from Portland, Oregon

Investor · Portland, OR · Member since 2015 · 4 posts · 1 vote

Hi folks,

I'm Garlynn Woodsong, and I live in NE Portland, Oregon. I have a background in regional planning and geography, which has given me a laser-focus on developing real estate options to meet the changing demands of the market, driven by larger demographic, social, and economic trends. Specifically, in this decade, we (real estate folks) just can't build enough residential rental real estate in walkable areas to keep up with demand. No matter how hard we try, demand is so far above supply, that the best we can hope for is to make a profit on every new unit we bring to market. That, my friends, is a good problem to have.

Accordingly, my focus is finding distressed properties, adding units to them, and bringing them to market. I like areas with a walk score of 70 or above, and similarly good transit and bicycling scores. I'm willing to consider other locations, however, if they are exceptional for a less-quantifiable reason (and otherwise pencil as a good deal).

I have been at this for a little over a year. My company has two properties currently going through permitting, and another that is wrapping up design and engineering, about to begin permitting. Once we have solved the financial puzzle for those three properties, we would like to add a fourth to the pipeline -- then a fifth, and a sixth, and so on.

I have a great contractor, but he is a specialist, so I'm open to meeting other contractors who may have capacity to work on rehabs in the near future (3-6 months out), especially if they have a laser focus on keeping costs low but quality high.

I also like meeting new potential private investors, other developers, and anybody else with an interest in this stuff.

I have a four-year-old son, and am active in my neighborhood association and other community activities. I tend to stay busy.

Working to make better communities, one property at a time. Let's make this happen.

cheers,
~Garlynn

0Reply
23 views

Most Popular Reply

Mike NussPro Member
Real Estate Entrepreneur · Portland, OR · Member since 2014 · 451 posts · 328 votes
11y

@Garlynn Woodsong your strategy definitely is a solid one. All of our hold properties are located within close-in high walk score neighborhoods. I'm interested in how you decided a walk score of 70+ was a parameter for you. I think most of our properties are in the 82+ range so that just seems a little low, based on all the other factors you mentioned. What neighborhood association are you active in?

See this reply in the discussion

11 Replies

Jump to latestLatest
  • Residential Real Estate Broker · Beaverton, OR · Member since 2014 · 335 posts · 149 votes
    11y

    @Garlynn Woodsong, Welcome to BP. You've found a great resource for all your real estate questions and connecting with like minded investors. 

  • Investor · Allen, TX · Member since 2015 · 26 posts · 5 votes
    11y

    Hello Garylnn,

    Warm welcome to BP, I have been looking at investment options in Portland/Suburbs as well. Would like to connect with you offline to understand if there is any possibility to work together on your initiatives.

    Kind Regards,

    Rajiv

  • Mike NussPro Member
    Real Estate Entrepreneur · Portland, OR · Member since 2014 · 451 posts · 328 votes
    11y

    @Garlynn Woodsong your strategy definitely is a solid one. All of our hold properties are located within close-in high walk score neighborhoods. I'm interested in how you decided a walk score of 70+ was a parameter for you. I think most of our properties are in the 82+ range so that just seems a little low, based on all the other factors you mentioned. What neighborhood association are you active in?

  • Professional · Carlsbad, CA · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    11y

    @Garlynn Woodsong

    Welcome to Bigger Pockets. BP is full of resources. You will find resources here from blogs to pod casts and forums. You can also send messages to members. This is one of my favorite features of Bigger Pockets especially for asking specific questions.

  • Jay HinrichsBusiness Member
    Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
    11y

    @Garlynn Woodsong  I would be interested in chatting with you vis a vi your request for equity... either personally or help guide you to some firms that may be of interest to you.

    the stuff I am building has walk scores of  Negative 20... but they still sell  LOL.

    Actually I have 3 infills going also but they happen so SLOWLY in Mult. county.. little frustrating.. but you get in there and roll up your sleeves this is certainly a profitable high paced market.

  • Investor · Portland, OR · Member since 2015 · 4 posts · 1 vote
    11y
    Originally posted by @Mike Nuss:

    @Garlynn Woodsong your strategy definitely is a solid one. All of our hold properties are located within close-in high walk score neighborhoods. I'm interested in how you decided a walk score of 70+ was a parameter for you. I think most of our properties are in the 82+ range so that just seems a little low, based on all the other factors you mentioned. What neighborhood association are you active in?

     Hi Mike,

    I agree that 82+ is more ideal than 70. However, I have found plenty of good neighborhoods in the 70s range, where the walkscore is slightly lower not due to any inherent flaw in the neighborhood (such as poor street layout), but rather due to a shortage of nearby walkable destinations. If I feel that the neighborhood is up-and-coming, and other fundamentals are good, then I would still consider something above 70 but below 82!

    I'm active in Concordia, the Northeast Coalition, as well as citywide in a couple of capacities.

    cheers,
    ~Garlynn

  • Mike NussPro Member
    Real Estate Entrepreneur · Portland, OR · Member since 2014 · 451 posts · 328 votes
    11y

    @Garlynn Woodsong I definitely agree there are a bunch of pockets that will be seeing better walkscores with the comp plan changes occuring and Metro's forced density. Multi family housing has been dominating the building seen the past two years with more than 60% of new homes in the metro region and more than 65% in Portland. 

    I'd love to see/hear more about your apodment project and single family to 3+ unit conversion. Those are not easy projects. 3+ units bring on the commercial code with fire sprinklers and what not, but when rents are $2.00+/SF those projects can pencil. Plus cap rates in the 4-5 range can bring some substantial equity along with the cash flow. Portland is ripe for just this type of development.

  • Real Estate Investor · Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh · Member since 2015 · 202 posts · 12 votes
    11y

    Hi @Garlynn Woodsong

                                         Welcome to Bigger Pockets. BP is full of resources. You will find resources here from blogs to pod casts and forums.

  • Investor · Portland, OR · Member since 2015 · 4 posts · 1 vote
    11y
    Originally posted by @Mike Nuss:

    @Garlynn Woodsong I definitely agree there are a bunch of pockets that will be seeing better walkscores with the comp plan changes occuring and Metro's forced density. Multi family housing has been dominating the building seen the past two years with more than 60% of new homes in the metro region and more than 65% in Portland. 

    I'd love to see/hear more about your apodment project and single family to 3+ unit conversion. Those are not easy projects. 3+ units bring on the commercial code with fire sprinklers and what not, but when rents are $2.00+/SF those projects can pencil. Plus cap rates in the 4-5 range can bring some substantial equity along with the cash flow. Portland is ripe for just this type of development.

    Indeed; even with all the multifamily activity, the data I've seen indicates that we're still far behind the demand curve. We will need to step up the pace of unit production a little bit more just to meet the annual increase in demand this year, then up a bit more next year, and even more the year after that, if we want to not only meet the annual increase, but begin to catch up with the backlog of demand from previous years. 

    Further, I've seen some data that indicate that townhomes with sufficient outdoor space could begin to meet demand from demographic segments that are generally considered to prefer single family detached products (families with children, etc). 

    Because it is a market segment that is not usually broken out and studied by itself, I believe that flats in structures with 3-5 units that look like single family homes and have yards could also potentially meet this demand tranche, if need be.

    I will definitely provide more information on the projects currently underway as they continue to progress!

    cheers,
    ~Garlynn

  • Rental Property Investor · Portland, OR · Member since 2015 · 338 posts · 332 votes
    10y

    @Garlynn Woodsong, how have your projects come along in the past 9 months?  You're doing something similar to what I'm moving towards, and for the same reasons (I'm a product of the UO architecture program).  I'd love to learn about your current projects and you've got in the works.  

    Warmly,

    Dani

  • Investor · Portland, OR · Member since 2015 · 4 posts · 1 vote
    10y
    Originally posted by @Account Closed:

    @Garlynn Woodsong, how have your projects come along in the past 9 months?  You're doing something similar to what I'm moving towards, and for the same reasons (I'm a product of the UO architecture program).  I'd love to learn about your current projects and you've got in the works.  

    Warmly,

    Dani

     Account Closed, they have been coming very slowly. The delays caused by the City of Portland's Bureau of Development Services' failure to follow state law and issue permits within 120 days (http://www.oregonlaws.org/ors/227.178) meant that we got pushed into the rainy season for excavations. And what a rainy season! More delays, as we had to do what we never wanted to do... dig during the wet months. As a result, we are only now beginning to move beyond foundation work towards project completion.

    So, lots of lessons we are continuing to learn here, the hard way (the only way?)... including the need to structure each project incrementally, such that there is a way to earn cash flow to cover holding costs during the design & permitting period.

    In the meantime, however, the market is continuing to rise, so I'm not questioning whether these are good projects. Our procedural manuals moving forward will be based on some very relevant initial experiences!

    cheers,

    ~Garlynn

Join the conversationCreate a free account to reply, vote on answers and follow this thread.