Top Four Takeaways From Metrofamily NW Apartment Report Breakfast

By October 23, 2018April 13th, 2021Portland Apartment News

Metrofamily NW held their bi-annual Apartment Report Breakfast for over 600 people on Thursday, October 18, which featured five speakers, including the candidate for City Commissioner Loretta Smith.

Here are my top takeaways from the breakfast:

  1. Los Angeles based apartment buyer and rehabber Trion Properties bought ten properties in Portland due to the city’s “recession performance” in 2008-2011, the strong tech growth, and that Los Angeles office space is $60 per square foot.

2. Leah Sykes, attorney for Greenspoon Marder gave an update on her work for the Rental Services Commission.  Her report was DISMAL: proposals are coming up for voting regarding tenant deposits and tenant screening that are amazingly complex and difficult.  For example, the tentative proposal for tenant screening is eight pages long, and has many rules, which leads to a ton of potential for mistakes.

3. Following Leah Sykes, city commissioner candidate Loretta Smith threw away her original speech and gave an emotional speech about keeping quality people living in Portland.  She basically insisted that if you vote for her competition, landlords would have a much more difficult time operating their rental properties.  The crowd appeared to agree (as do I).

4. Brook Turner and Janan New, housing directors from San Francisco spoke, he and his partner agreed with Loretta Smith, and they wished they were more proactive years ago in San Francisco when rent control issues came up for voting.

Here is an article from Jonathan Clay of Metrofamily NW outlining the “onslaught of bad policy proposals”

https://www.multifamilynw.org/news/call-to-action-apartment-report-breakfast-panelists-recap-onslaught-of-bad-policy-proposals

Jonathan Clay calls for help and donations to the defense fund in the article:

Multifamily NW is at the forefront of these serious threats to our industry’s business practices and liability. Our legal/lobby/PR team is preparing a multi-faceted campaign fight and preserve fairness in our industry. The results of the November 6th election will finally determine and confirm the power dynamic in Salem we will face in the 2019 Legislative Session.

Bernard Gehret

Bernard Gehret

Joseph Bernard Investment Real Estate