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Our team of local professionals at Mynd Property Management are different than other Portland property managers. Servicing the greater Lake Oswego, Hillsboro, Gresham and Aloha areas, we leverage real-time data to consistently better our services, providing owners with seamless management experience.
Customers working with Mynd can rely on us as their trusted partner, providing them with a healthy investment, and their residents with a happy home. Agriculture and fishing once were Oregon’s greatest investments, now, it’s residential real estate. It’s time to make your Portland real estate investment work for you.
If we place a resident and they fail to pay rent at any time during their lease, we reimburse you up to $5,000 in lost rent while we resolve the situation.
If a resident we place moves out and leaves behind property damage in excess of their security deposit, we will cover the difference, up to $5,000.
If a Mynd-placed resident fails to pay rent and an eviction is required, Mynd will cover the court costs and legal fees up to $5,000.
Your rental property is one of your most valuable assets. You expect concrete, tangible results, and Mynd delivers. We focus on measurable results that you can see.
Quicker than average leasing times.
Less than 4 business hours for owners, less than 8 business hours for residents.
Higher than average resident quality score (720+)
No need to worry about rental payments, less than 2% delinquency.
Consistently high customer satisfaction scores (Better than 4/5)
Net Promoter Score of 58 versus industry average of 7
We start by hiring the best people with deep local expertise.We equip them with the tools, technology and data. You get results.
Scott brings to the table 3-decades of property management experience from a 360-degree perspective. Scott started his career as an accountant for a large PM firm. After a decade, Scott leveraged his industry knowledge and began his own real estate investment company which included remodels, small land developments, and long-term rental holds. Scott enjoys working with the owners and sharing his investing experience to help maximize their investments. Reach out to Scott to learn more about Portland and other surrounding markets!
At Mynd, we’re also real estate investors, so we know all the concerns and challenges that come with rental property ownership and investing in the Portland area. We know renting laws in Portland are so confusing thatthe city is offering classes for residents and landlords about the laws anda coalition of landlords actually sued the city because the laws are so cumbersome and confusing.You don’t have the time to take a class, or even read a SparkNotes guide. Mynd’s property managers do, and they’ll answer all your questions too. Don’t worry, we won’t quiz you. Mynd knows Portland in the way only a local can.
They say an earthquake is inevitable in Portland. Your Portland rental property investment is as important to us as our own. We ensure your rental income is optimized, your residents are happy, and that your property meets the latest earthquake codes. Learn more about Portland property management below!
Today’s topic is one that’s becoming more and more popular in multiple areas of the country, and that’s rent control. Recently, the whole state of Oregon passed rent control laws, and now some revisions are being made in several cities.
We asked Scott to give us an idea of what’s happening with rent control in Portland and throughout Oregon.
Portland is very progressive and not the only region with rent control laws. The trend recently has been for states to shift the rulebooks more towards resident protections. Understanding the local Portland economics is important because when you are talking about rent controls, there is always a driving force behind why rent control is being implemented.
Portland has been one of the hottest investment markets in the nation for quite a long time. It’s also had an acute housing shortage. This has created expensive rents, and many residents are struggling to pay for housing. So, Senate Bill 608 was passed in February of 2017.
There are two main parts of this bill.
The first is an actual cap on rents. There are a lot of exceptions. For example, if a home is 15 years old or newer, it’s fully exempt because they want to keep driving the development and construction of new homes. But, if the home is more than 15 years old, landlords are limited to a seven percent rental increase, plus the CPI or Consumer Price Index. Over the last two years, it has resulted in a rent increase that can go no higher than 10 percent.
This is pretty reasonable and not terribly limited. As long as you are staying close to market rents, a 10 percent increase is not going to limit your profitability or returns in Oregon.
The second part of this bill addressed no-cause evictions.
Most people associate the word eviction with being forced out for nonpayment of rent. That might be true but there is also a no-cause eviction, and that typically means a landlord is not renewing a lease. The big change in Oregon is that if the resident has been in the property for more than one year, landlords cannot do a no-cause eviction or ask for the property back with a 30-day notice period.
This is significant. It applies to month-to-month residents as well if they’ve been living in the home for more than a year. This, combined with the law that says you can only increase rents once a year means that you have a bizarre leasing situation. If you have a vacancy on February 1 and you want to fill it, you might do a five or six-month lease so you’re at the point where the next vacancy is in the summer. But in Portland, the new laws mean your lease end date and the date you increase your rent are likely to be two different dates.
The problem for landlords is that this provides a much shorter window of time to determine whether this is a resident you’d like to keep. Waiting out a full year before you decide whether you want to renew the lease is no longer possible. It gets you in trouble because it doesn’t allow you to do a no-cause eviction, in which you simply decide to look for a new resident or do something else with your property.
We’re now recommending an 11-month lease instead of a full year lease. This is the only way to maintain leverage when it comes to removing residents we’d rather not work with. In the past, you could remove a resident with a 30-day notice and get your property back. Now, you need to have a documented reason to evict the resident, such as nonpayment of rent, lease violations, or criminal activity. That’s not possible anymore.
Understanding these laws is critical, and many investors aren’t even aware of them. When you read the legislation, you can either trust your own ability to interpret the laws or you need to hire a really good real estate attorney. You can also hire a good Portland property management firm that will know the rule book and handle the legal issues for you.
Rent control and eviction laws are different depending where you are in Oregon. With the housing shortage, Portland has a stricter rulebook than the rest of the state. There are additional new rules on security deposits and accounting restrictions.
You’re running a business when you invest in a property and rent it out in Portland. Businesses have laws, and it is your responsibility to abide by these laws and regulations. You have to take this seriously because the government takes this seriously and they are going to hold you accountable.
Don’t try and figure out all the different laws on your own. As we said earlier, laws are always changing. They’re always being updated depending on the market and the people who are in power. And the trend both nationally and in Portland is to move closer to a tenant-friendly set of laws and regulations. This means you have to know exactly how the laws affect your properties and your investments.If you have any questions about rent control in Portland, Oregon, please contact us at Mynd Property Management. We have processes in place to protect our owners and investors against the problems that can be encountered with rent control and evictions.
Many Portland, OR investors have worked with property management companies before, and they know what to expect. But, if you’re a new investor or you’re thinking about investing or you’ve been a landlord for just a little while and you’re thinking about handing over the duties to a professional, you might want a little more information about what exactly a property manager can do for you.Today, we’re explaining what a property management company in Portland does, and why it can help you have a better investment experience.
Property management companies actually do a whole lot for the owners and the residents they serve.
Some of the tasks that come with professional property management are fairly obvious. You probably know that your property manager will handle marketing your vacant property. We’ll take care of all the online advertising and we’ll help you establish a rental value that’s both competitive and profitable.
We will work with prospective residents on the application process and screen everyone who applies. When we’re ready to place a resident, we’ll handle all of the leasing and the collection of security deposits and move-in funds.
The leasing process is only the beginning. Once a tenant is placed, your property manager will take care of all the accounting that pertains to your rental property. This includes rent collection and tracking all the income and expenses associated with your property. We produce statements, reports, and tax forms.
Relationships are also part of a property manager’s job description. We’ll take care of the resident relationship and we’ll also use our vendor relationships to keep your property well-maintained.
We treat our residents as customers and that contributes to better relationships, increased communication, and higher retention rates. The average resident will have 3.8 maintenance requests a year, and we’re available for all of them. Property managers should answer the phone 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. You don’t have to worry about tracking down plumbers or gathering quotes for roofing work. Your property manager will identify the maintenance issues that are required and get the repairs scheduled and taken care of for the resident.
A good property management company will provide more than day to day operational support. We are also, more importantly, here to help you have a better and more profitable investment experience. We will treat your asset like an investment and make decisions based on your bottom line and your earnings. You wouldn’t give $400,000 to a stockbroker without knowing they are going to be very hands-on with that investment. Property managers have the same attention to your real estate investments. We’ll stay focused on your property or your portfolio. We will treat them like they’re our own investments, and we’ll make sure they are earning you as much money as possible.
We will preserve the condition of your asset by maintaining it and protecting it against tenant damage, vacancy costs, and liabilities. We’ll keep an eye on preventative maintenance in your Portland rental property and make plans for long term upgrades and updates so we can help you maximize your rents over time and attract well-qualified residents.
One of the most important services your Portland property manager will provide is help with the local market and the rental values. The amount of rent you’re able to earn on your property will really depend on the location. The same house might earn one rent in one neighborhood and something completely different in another neighborhood. Your property manager should understand the nuances of each neighborhood and help you approach the pricing, marketing, and screening appropriately.
Something that’s often overlooked when we talk about the benefits of professional property management is that we really become the firewall between you and your resident. As an investor, you don’t want to make decisions based on emotions and what you think you should do. Your Portland property management company will have a completely unemotional approach to managing your home and working with your residents if you choose to work with a property management company in Portland. The decisions that are made will be based on the law and the lease agreement. We keep it that simple.
Property managers will always treat your rental property like a business that’s designed to make you money. Without a good resident in place, that business doesn’t earn anything. So, you need the property management company to put up a firewall and protect you from the emotions and the personal relationships that can sometimes plague investors who manage their own homes. If you’re new to the industry, you may not understand how difficult it can be to manage residents. Figuring it all out once you already have a resident in place is difficult and dangerous. That’s where the property management company really comes into play and becomes so vital to your success and the success of your investment.
If you have any more questions about what you can expect your property management company to do for you, please contact us at Mynd Property Management. We can tell you all about our own services and what you should expect when you have someone professionally managing your Portland rental home. It’s an important relationship, and one you should take seriously. Let us know how we can help you make more and worry less when it comes to your investments.
You can also visit our Facebook group of investors, which is called Master Mynd. It’s a real estate investors’ club, where you can exchange ideas with other owners. Check out our weekly podcast as well, called The Myndful Investor. We invite leaders in real estate and property management to talk about their success and, more importantly, their failures. There’s a lot to learn from this relatable content.
Learn more about Oregon’s H.B.2001 bill and how it will affect rent pricing. Why is this an attractive opportunity for entrepreneurial investors?
Scott Muzuca, Portland Property Manager for Mynd, says a lot of development gets stifled because of the “not in my backyard” attitude.
People in single family home areas are typically opposed to multi-family complexes existing in their neighborhood. Oregon is the first state to issue a bill that has eliminated single family housing zoning state-wide. This bill does have some stipulations like you have to be a city with a population of 10,000 or greater for the bill to affect the area, but it does apply to most of Oregon.
This bill can be good or bad depending on how you position yourself as an investor.
When investors are looking at an investment property, they are looking for the highest and best use. When single-family zoning was in place, that was set for you. Highest and best use meant you put as much home on a piece of property as the neighborhood or rules allowed. Some neighborhoods were redeveloped by replacing an old house with a larger mansion.
Now the opportunities have increased. The land has been rezoned to allow more than just a single-family home.
This bill addresses what they're calling the missing middle. We have a lot of single-family homes and apartments, but there's isn’t a lot of development in the middle (Duplexes, Triplex, and Fourplexes).
This bill favors density, and they want the result to be an increase in housing supply and choice. If you own a big enough piece of property, you could do what they're calling a cottage cluster and build three or four little tiny homes that are 400 square feet.
What you can expect to receive rent-wise from one rental house versus a multi-family unit on the same 1 acre of land shows you the potential increase in your investment. That could be a significant increase in potential rent for your acre of land.
As the supply increases, you will probably see the impact on rental rates. You may have to lower what your rent is to compete, but overall, you may see an increase in value because you have 2, 3,or 4 rental properties instead of 1 on your land.
In the Portland metro area, there is a housing scarcity, and this bill encourages a welcomed increase in supply. If you are in a market where you're seeing an oversupply, that could affect your investments. You will want to know which cities have the better potential.
As an investor, what you do worry about with housing bill 2001 is the “not in my backyard” from an owner in a nice single-family neighborhood that starts to see his neighbors putting in little cottages. Suddenly the parking gets out of control, and now there are lower income homes in your neighborhood. This could cause the appreciation value to go down as a result.
Now the investor that owns five or less properties can play in the same game that was previously reserved for the larger, well-funded investors. The larger investors would take a big piece of land zoned for high density and build a lot of units that create significant value. They could get a chunk of land rezoned and overnight create wealth because now the land’s highest and best use was dramatically changed.
Single-family housing zoning has now been eliminated. The one home per piece of land limit is now gone.
Now you can add an addition to your home and rent it out through Airbnb. You could have a smaller home on the property for Grandma or another family member. Apiece of land may be worth more as an apartment complex or fourplex.
If you live in a single-family home, does that now mean somebody can come along and put an apartment complex or a commercial strip mall next to the house? There is still zoning against that. There are also limits on density on a lot. Currently you can only put 4 homes per acre.
In most cases if you have a seven or eight thousand square foot lot, there’s not going to be room for more than two homes. You are going to see a lot of tiny homes sprinkled in, but that adds a lot of value as an investor as you may be doubling your income. This can be viewed as a win-win situation as renters are going to have a variety in housing choices they may not have had in the past.
When you're looking for a rental property to purchase, make sure you're in the right school district.Tenants with families will be more interested in the areas with good schools. Your local Oregon property manager knows the area well and can help you find an investment property in a popular area.
The H.B. 2001 is a follow up to Senate bill 608. Oregon was one of the first states to pass a state-wide rent control bill. This year the rent control is a 10% increase, so it isn’t really restrictive. Rent controls are typically put in place when there is a housing shortage. The H.B. 2001 seems to be geared to helping ease the housing shortage by increasing the supply.
As people see the opportunity, it is possible this could drive prices up.
You want to be on guard as an investor. There are always going to be a few potential negatives such as an increase in density causing parking issues. However, if you have the right eye for finding the opportunities to make the highest and best use of a property, the Oregon market could be a fantastic investment option.
Scott Muzuca’s conclusion on H.B. 2001 is that it will benefit the entrepreneurial investor, and Steve believes this is going to put Oregon on the map for investors that are looking for these types of strategies.
How will you benefit as an investor from an experienced property manager?
They know the area and the rental market. If you are interested in finding out what cities to invest in or if you need property management in Oregon, reach out to Scott Muzuca at Mynd property management.
