All Forum Posts by: Brian Crumrine

Shawn - thank you for the thoughts! I’m new to estimating rents but feel I’m being conservative…hopefully too conservative. And I do feel I can finish the basement and raise rents. 

Any other duplex in the neighborhoods we’re considering is more expensive than this place by a significant amount. I’m tempted to put a little more down to ensure reliable cashflow and work the long game to increase rents through small adds over time.

Thanks again.

Hey folks - My wife and I are interested in expanding our investment in our home town. We've run a two-unit short term rental here in Portland for 5 years with success (2025 will be our best year yet), and are interested in obtaining a long term rental or two here locally to get some experience as landlords (slightly less active than running an STR). We're attracted to the city's openness to adding ADUs, etc to traditionally single-family residential zones. We are most focused on long term investing.

We're looking at a property that has a 2/1 house with value add potential (basement) and a very nice ~8 year old detached ADU. The property (which I think of as 2 units) is near rent-ready unless we were to finish the basement before renting. I've reviewed the zoning rules and a second detached ADU is likely allowed (making that make financial sense is another story).

Affordability is tough here, and I feel like I'm in a push/pull between cash on cash return and long term ROI (including appreciation). We're in the fortunate position to be able to pay cash for this property, which would get us a 6% cash on cash return roughly. However, that would put all our available capital into this one property. If we were to finance this property the yearly CoC drops to 1% or less...but leaves a good amount of capital to fund the next property.

What would you do in our situation? How should I think about this investment? 

I'm interested in your thoughts! That said, "invest outside of Portland" doesn't help me right now...someday I'll get there.

We started off 2025 with our highest level of bookings since we started in 2022 (Portland, OR). Bookings are strong through September. But we have seen very few bookings come in over the last three months. One reason is likely that prime weekends/long weekends are booked through Sept...but our fall is very open right now. Its unusual to not see more regular bookings come through. The trend toward shorter booking windows could explain this...but the reduction in booking pace eerily corresponds with economic turmoil beginning in March. 

Do others feel macro economic conditions are impacting bookings?

Hi there - I'm looking to connect with contractors that work on small multi-family rehab projects in NE Portland, OR. 1-4 units primarily.

Can anyone share an idea or two?

Thanks!

Hi there, new to Bigger Pockets forums. I just listened to Michael Baum on the podcast and decided to actually look at the forums...

This has been an interesting conversation to read through. My wife and I have a 2 unit STR in Portland, OR. We use Airbnb exclusively and have done, well, fine. The profit to effort ratio seems good enough. We self manage.

We've hesitated to list anywhere else mainly because we communicate with guests exclusively through AirBnB. Adding another channel would monkey with that process (Michael Baum...I agree...process is critical).

How do all those that use multiple channels manage their guess communications without getting overwhelmed? 

Hello Bigger Pockets. I was referred to you all by a contact and have been eating gup the podcast this past month or so. My wife and I are looking to go further into real estate investing. We have a short term rental that's doing alright here in Portland, OR...wondering what our next move should be. And, looking to become more strategic with how we marketing/price our little hotel...we call it our hotel. Its a 2-unit property on Airbnb. 

Thought I would introduce myself to the community. My next move is to go learn about dynamic pricing and other topics in the forums...