All Forum Posts by: Jeffrey Lee

So I'm in the process of buying a home in Newberg, OR (wine country) that I intend to turn into my first STR and I'm coming up against a really ridiculous permitting process. As part of the application, there needs to be an entire "narrative" about my intentions with the property, addressing dozens of regulations and other points of interest, site drawings, signs on the property, and even attending a public hearing about my proposal. If that weren't enough, the process is slow and will cost close to $2,000 in fees. I had been hoping to close on the house in mid July and race to get it up on the vacation rental sites ASAP to capture the tail end of the high season, but it looks like that's not going to happen. I was told to expect it to take into September at the earliest. This is definitely a bummer, but I'm pressing on. We're just going to need to be a bit more creative about the first couple of months so we don't bleed out too much money.

Anyways, is this type of cost/process an anomaly, or have others come across something similar? Any chance there's anyone else on here doing this in Newberg, OR who has experience/advice? One interesting thing is that I was originally looking at properties in nearby towns and had called into two other city halls to find out the process was simple and cheap, so I was really surprised to find that Newberg is so over the top.

From a basic accounting standpoint it makes some amount of sense. The money is not technically revenue until the service has been rendered completely.

Long story, but I'll try to simplify: My wife got a one year contract job at a university about an hour away from our primary residence. It happens to be near a tourist destination (Oregon wine country). Originally, I was thinking we'd buy a rental property to live in for the year (which would get us the owner-occupied benefits), then rent it out to long term renters and move back to our current house. 

Another thought occurred to me though: What if we bought a vacation rental type home and rented it out on the weekends and only lived there during the week for the year (actually only 9 months) that she'll be employed out there, then turn it into a full time vacation rental when we're done (I don't think there's as strong of a long term rental market in the area). I know there are potential pitfalls and lots to figure out about this plan, but I'm specifically curious about how this type of arrangement would affect the owner-occupied mortgage situation. I'm wondering if there is a maximum number of days you're allowed to rent, or minimum number of days you have to live there to qualify for the benefits. Or if we rent it at all during the first year, is it a no-go? 

Anyone have experience with this? I suppose I could ask the mortgage broker, but I don't want to give away too much info before I have to...

Aha, yes! I think that answers my question. Thank you!

Follow up: My inclination is to be up front with prospective tenants that my intention is to move back in after one year and make sure our expectations are aligned. Is this reasonable? Or do you think it's better to not broach the subject until it's actually happening because who can really tell the future anyways?

My wife and I have an opportunity to buy an investment property in a nearby town and I'd like to buy it owner-occupied. She just took a one year position in the new area so the idea is that we'd move out to the new house for the year, rent our current house, then move back to our current house and begin renting the new house.

My question is: how realistic is it to rent my current house for only one year? Can I just choose to not renew someone's lease after a year, even if they want to keep living here? Could I potentially run into trouble with eviction laws? My current house is in Portland, OR and I know we have some very strict pro-tenant laws, but I believe the strictest of them only apply to landlords with multiple rental properties in the county, which I would not have.

Any other general tips/advice on my current plan are also welcomed.