Finding Your Investment Property

Posted on: August 16, 2007 Posted by: Real Estate We Blog Comments: 0

Finding Your Investment Property

Right now I’m up in Bend Oregon looking at potential real estate investment properties. I drove up here from San Francisco last Friday and will be here until the 28th. Oregon has really boomed (especially Bend) over the past several years and it shows. I remember coming up here years ago and seeing single family homes going for $250k. Now the same style is going for $450k.

My observations:

  • More people are moving up here to retire
  • Investors bought up properties since CA or other west coast states are too pricey
  • Oregon was undervalued or at least perceived that way

Now I actually came up here looking for a vacation/rental home for myself. Something I could rent out 75% of the year via a rental agency and vacation the other 25% of the time. What I’ve found so far isn’t too bad assuming vacancy rates will stay low. There are also a lot of inventory since local owners are trying to cash out. That gives me the advantage and I can low ball on the offer.

How did I find property to look at?
I first narrowed down my search to a single location — Bend. I then hopped on the internet and printed out a list of potential properties. I called the realtor for each and setup time for showing. During the time I wasn’t looking at properties, I crunched the numbers to make sure everything worked. If the realtor told me vacancy rates are usually 25% I bumped that number to 35% and then did the math.

I’m still evaluating properties and should have a decision by this weekend.