All Forum Posts by: Neal Collins

@Alex Hake I'm curious what your read on the Lincoln City/Newport markets was that made you want to move your family to another state-- to the Oregon coast of all places--to flip and do BRRR?

@Josh Rogers If you're looking to wholesale then it's best to go straight to the source. Websites like that are a trading platform.

@Justin M Christian What are you odds are of creating a market ready, scalable software product that is based on other people's pain points which you are unfamiliar with? Hopefully this doesn't come off as harsh, because I am genuinely curious how this approach seems to make sense to software engineers. Countless young software engineers spent hours upon hours trying to solve someone else's problem without actually having any first hand experience. The odds of mass market adoption of the product or service is low, which means that the lure of potential upside must great enough to compensate for your time devoted.

My two cents if you want to actually develop a great software product in the real estate industry is to get some experience with it and intimately understand WHY it is a pain point for professionals in the space.

@Myka Artis Yes different ballgame now. Penalties can range up to $1,000 - $5,000 per day now in Portland for short term violations. There have been a few cases of the city really coming down hard, but when we got dinged it wasn't quite that severe, but it nevertheless was enough for us to get into compliance with their new rules.

Because we operate out of Appfolio with our long-term rentals we advertise on all the same marketing platforms with the corporate. Dozens of website but the majority of time we get a lot of traffic from Zillow, Trulia, etc. We'll never make the mistake of using Corporate Housing By Owner ever again. What a waste.

We also have attempted to work with relo specialists, traveling nurse groups, large companies, and realtors in town but have gotten very mediocre results thus far. How about you?

@Myka Artis If only our local regulations were that lax...We had to switch from purely nightly rentals to corporate rentals on a handful of units because of our city's changing regulatory environment. Hosts in Portland now have a 1 address rule, as well as a mandate that the listing is a primary residence. I would love it if we had the ability to fill in the gaps with short term stays. We'd be absolutely crushing it on corporate rentals if that were the case.

@Lani Eversage We work a lot in that unit range and know Portland proper quite well. The school is in an interesting area and because of my own personal preference to avoid long commutes each day I would narrow that search down. Nothing like sitting bumper-to-bumper on the 205 in rush hour trying to get home. There's actually some pretty cool neighborhoods close to the school. You won't find many multifamily there, but Maywood Park is close-by and is actually its own town inside the boundaries of Portland. It's situated in an old growth forest and has a great vibe. As for multifamily, there are some opportunities out there for value-add, especially because that area is changing. 

I'd be happy to grab a cup of coffee and talk shop when you're in town. Cheers!

@Pra Che A pro is that a corporate rental can fetch a rental price premium, however, one problem that we encounter with corporate rentals is that calendar and booking management is much more challenging than short-term stays or long-term tenants. Sometimes dates simply don't match up and when you go vacant for a month between two corporate rental bookings then that comes with a big vacancy loss. Hopefully you can avoid that problem.

@Amadeus Hladun This has nothing to do with actual deals, but some of the lessons I've picked up along the way that have been a tremendous help building the funnel so that you aren't just looking for your next deal.

1. Don't let money burn a hole in your pocket, but when you see an opportunity jump on it. 

2. Knowledge and a solid network is how you get ahead in this industry (any industry for that matter).

3. Network, leverage your connections to meet more people that are doing real estate in different areas/niches.

4. Commit to lifelong learning through a multi-pronged educational approach that includes learning from others, learning from experience, learning from books, learning from sites like BP, learn from podcasts, learn from school, learn from seminars, etc.

5. Always be on the lookout for deals and opportunities.

6. Understand financing and how money works.

7. Engage in your community. 

8. Become an authority. 

9. Learn about entrepreneurship, self-mastery and mindset.

10. Have a balanced work/home life. Don't give up your outside interests.

11. Encourage your wife to participate and make sure you both come up with common goals. Nurture your marriage and give your wife praise and recognition. Often our spouses are the ones that go through a huge emotional roller coaster learning how to support their entrepreneurial partners and the last thing you want is for her to resent your business.

Depending on your cash flow and goals @Jessica Wang, you may want to think about a couple things:

1. Can you leverage the equity in the houses while keeping them as rentals in order to purchase more income producing assets.

2. Can you sell the houses and roll up the equity into something bigger and better.

Check out Hennessy, Reeves, Khan, and Elkins or Shawn Morgan. It’ll be helpful for you to have all your terms of the deal laid out so that they just need to plug in play on a Prom Note and Trust Deed. It’ll save you a lot of money as well.