From Corporate Grind to Real Estate Freedom in Portland

Kristen Knapp (01:31)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen Knapp and I’m here with Rochelle Newmyer, a realtor in the Portland metro area. I’m so excited to talk to you. Thank you for being here.

Rashelle Newmyer (01:40)
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Kristen Knapp (01:42)
Yes, so you’re big in the real estate world over in Portland and it seems like you’re the master connector,

So just tell us all about how you got into the real estate business.

Rashelle Newmyer (01:54)
Yeah, definitely. So I’m a former corporate America kid.

And I was working the corporate grind and I just got burnt out and someone had said to me, I’m surprised you never got into real estate. And it’s so funny because like, it was never even on my radar. And I was like, what do you mean? And they’re like, well, you’re good at sales. You love people. You don’t mind being in your car, your self starter. My background is marketing and digital marketing specifically. They’re like, I just feel like this would suit you. So I started to pursue it out of curiosity like anybody does. And they first start something talking to people.

new in real estate looking into schools and then eight years later here we are. Yeah.

Kristen Knapp (02:31)
That’s amazing. And then how

did your mind set shift going from corporate America to having your own thing?

Rashelle Newmyer (02:39)
Yeah, I mean the biggest difference is I think a lot of people don’t realize like realtors like you’re your own business, right? And so you’re operating your own business, your own PNL, all of those things. And so I think that’s a little bit different. And then when you’re a corporate person or any, if you’re working for anybody, normally they’re handing you work and as a self employed person, you’re out getting work. So like it’s a joke in real estate, which I’m sure you’ve heard is that like as soon as a deal closed, you’re out of work. And so you’re just like, I’m for hire again.

anybody need anything, here I am, you know, kind of a thing, so.

Kristen Knapp (03:12)
and were you able to do it full-time right away or were you kind of toggling both at the same time?

Rashelle Newmyer (03:16)
Yeah, well, while I went to real estate school, I kept my corporate job because I wanted to fill it out. And then once I got my license on all of that stuff, I just went into the deep end and decided to do it right away full time. So it did take a few months to get like my first deal under my belt and then, you know, you just grow from there.

Kristen Knapp (03:36)
Yeah, and then at what point were you like, I can actually make this. Like this is actually working for me.

Rashelle Newmyer (03:43)
Yeah, probably the first six months I realized like, ⁓

those people that were like, you should do this. They were right. Like this is a perfect fit for me. I also like having a more fluid schedule. It’s kind of also a joke in real estate that people get into it so they can have freedom and you don’t necessarily have freedom with your schedule. It’s just more fluid. So instead of like eight to five, you might work like nine to noon and then again from like six to midnight or something, you know, like it’s just a little bit different. And I actually appreciate that where I can break it up and do things like go volunteer at my daughter’s

Kristen Knapp (03:49)
You’re right, yeah.

Rashelle Newmyer (04:16)
classroom for like an hour or two but then right get back to the grind so it’s just a little bit easier to like work in the family stuff along with everything.

Kristen Knapp (04:19)
Yeah.

Totally. And then, you know, so now you’re really rolling. What do you love about the Portland real estate market?

Rashelle Newmyer (04:34)
Yeah, I mean the thing that’s been the most eye opening to me is becoming more and more involved with the Portland Metropolitan Realtors Association and then also our Association of Realtors and then also Oregon Realtors.

I didn’t realize how much they advocate on our behalf and the more I’ve gotten involved like I’m an Oregon State Director for Oregon Realtors and I’m a former Women’s Council of Realtors President here in the Portland area and just learning like how much we actually take to legislation to like get

different housing opportunities available to us and things like that. So that was one thing that like really took me by surprise and the last three years I’ve gotten the privilege to go to DC with Oregon Railways and present to legislation on things that are happening here in Oregon, things that we’re seeing, like we give them real-life examples about what our clients are experiencing, our agents here in the Pacific Northwest and then also any asks that we might have. like an initiative we’re working on right now is upcycling buildings.

like now that we’re seeing more people like shopping online, we’re seeing like, you know, different malls or shopping areas that are just sitting empty. And so we’re trying to find a way like how like the structure is there. How can we upcycle that structure to be multifamily housing or apartments or condos, things like that without all of the heavy lifting as far as like the permits and things. So the reason a lot of contractors aren’t touching those is because it costs so much money to

get them to a certain code to be able to make it into a multifamily unit and then those permits then it’ll only just take a really long time but it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars right so we’re like talking to legislation on how can we

get these up to codes without the front bill being so high because then like we need the housing. These buildings are here. They’re just sitting empty. Like how can we repurpose them? And then also it caught, it cuts down on the cost of materials. If we’re not rebuilding a whole structure altogether too. Like, so that’s something that’s been really cool in the Portland market that we’re really trying to like hard to implement. And I guess it’s not just Portland. That’s like statewide that we’re trying to do that. Cause even in the small towns, there’s like historical buildings that have

have been sitting empty and like no one’s using them. But to get those up to today’s standard codes would be really hard. And also it kind of lose the integrity and charm of it being a historic building. So like where do we find the middle where it’s like safe for someone to live in and functional, but like keeps that like small town charm and things like that. So that’s kind of some of the stuff that we’re seeing out here.

Kristen Knapp (07:54)
That’s so cool. So you actually have skin in the game when there’s issues popping up in the market. You can actually help change it. And how many people do you work with doing that?

Rashelle Newmyer (08:02)
Yeah, definitely.

⁓ well, anybody can go, so like, I don’t know if…

any agents out there listening. No, but like in May, sometimes it’s in May, sometimes it’s June. It’s called National Realtors Association, med year meetings. Nationally, you can come to that meeting with your state. when we go, sometimes there’s 60 organ realtors at the Capitol presenting to different people and we’re presenting to like council, men and women, senators, governors, you know, just the different people in different roles. and we break it up by topics too, and who we’re going to talk to about what

because some are very specific to certain counties and things like that. But anybody in any state can go to these meetings and set up time to meet with their legislation. And they actually really do want to hear from us because they’re not here, they’re at the Capitol. So they also don’t hear all the stories of like in real life examples that we can give them with our clients or builders or anybody that we’re working with and like what they’re struggling with. ⁓

Kristen Knapp (09:02)
I think that’s

really good advice that people probably don’t even know that that’s available to them.

Rashelle Newmyer (09:07)
Yeah, I mean, I didn’t for sure until I got more involved with my local association as well as Oregon Relators. Like it just totally opened my eyes like, wait a minute, what? And like we even have realtors running for positions within our government too, so that like they can really advocate for home ownership across the state.

Yeah, it’s pretty cool.

Kristen Knapp (10:00)
That’s wonderful.

Going into home ownership a little bit, what are some misconceptions that you often get about home ownership?

Rashelle Newmyer (10:09)
for sure.

Yeah, well I think one is there’s just

never enough proper education out there with the general public. Even like first time homebuyers, sometimes they think like their credit score has to be a certain amount or they have to have a certain amount of down payment and they just assume or they just take the news or wherever they’re getting their information at face value. So my advice is always to like talk to a few professionals, whether it’s a realtor or lender, anybody in the industry that could provide you with more information.

and like things that you can do to buy a home. And then another one is also investing, right? A lot of people. I mean, I know my family was wondering COVID. We were going kind of nuts not being able to travel and I pitched to my mom like we should buy a beach house and her mindset at the time was like, well, I can’t. I already have a mortgage like I think a lot of people have that mindset like why have one mortgage? They can’t have two mortgages and there’s actually just a lot of different ways where you can.

qualify for an investment property or second home and people just don’t realize it. So again, it’s just like partnering with any professional out there and like getting more information because you probably can qualify for an investment property and you don’t even realize it.

Kristen Knapp (11:25)
Yeah, what

are some of the qualifications that you need?

Rashelle Newmyer (11:27)
Yeah, well, I think what people don’t think about too is like, so for example, like a big thing right now is buying a house where your kids are going to go to college. And so because don’t come from universities and colleges if you’re listening, but, ⁓ you know, the dorms are very expensive, right? And so like for the cost, a dorm would cost a family or somebody, a student, whether they take out a loan or not, like if they were paying a mortgage, they would potentially get all that money back because they could either keep the house as an

Kristen Knapp (11:40)
Yeah.

Rashelle Newmyer (11:56)
investment opportunity or sell it at the end. like I know people like I have a 10 year old and I have friends that are buying houses right now in areas I think their kids might buy or like go to school in and they’re renting them now up till when the kid goes to school while the kids there they’ll live there and then when they leave they could keep it or sell it too but really you know it’s a great investment. But qualifications just vary it kind of depends on if you’re trying to do a short-term rental or long-term rental midterm rental I mean

Those are all you know different variables and then or if you’re gonna use it yourself at all personally if you’re buying it out of state if you Can I tell a lot of especially my first time homebuyers says like buy a multifamily unit first like before you buy a traditional detached house because you could buy a three unit property and put three and a half percent down with an FHA loan live in it be on our occupied for a year or two and then move and then the whole unit

like all three units qualify you to purchase something else because it’s all considered income and while you’re qualifying for that three unit property, let’s say you only qualify for a $400,000 detached house where you could probably qualify for $600,000 to $700,000 multi-unit because they’ll use the other two units as income to help you qualify for that purchase. And I just think knowing that kind of stuff really opens a lot of doors for people. And then you’re starting out with an investment property instead of trying to figure it out near like 40s or

50s, like, now what? I want to go backwards, you know? So it’s just kind of a nice way to start off on the right foot.

Kristen Knapp (13:28)
Totally, and I feel like there’s so many creative ways to make real estate work for you and to leverage it. A lot of people don’t know about it. So they, mean, as you said, instead of trying, they just don’t do it at all when there’s so many things you can do in between.

Rashelle Newmyer (13:33)
Definitely.

yeah, well and a lot of times like

Like out here in certain parts of Oregon, like if AG is attached to it, so like if you’re going to rent off, let’s say you’re going to let people, you don’t have a horse, let’s say you’re not a horse person, but you’re buying a house that could potentially house horses and you could also use that as a form of income to qualify for this house you love and then put the property to work for you. It’s just like another way.

There’s a lot of creative things you can do out here. And then there’s also different loans and tax or grants that you

can apply especially if you do have ag growing on the property sometimes you qualify for different things so again it’s just partnering with somebody that understands whatever market you’re in or what you’re trying to accomplish and then letting them help you.

Kristen Knapp (15:09)
Yeah, because

I was going to ask how do you know when you qualify for these loans? Is it you partner with your realtor and they should be able to…

Rashelle Newmyer (15:14)
Yeah, I mean you could do

the old Google search, like you never know if what you’re reading applies to you, if the property you’re interested in, if that works for that property and stuff. So you can always start doing a little bit of research on your own, but best is also to like then partner with somebody else too. Yeah.

Kristen Knapp (15:32)
Definitely. And then can

you talk about a time that you really, it was a huge win for your client, like maybe something creative like that?

Rashelle Newmyer (15:40)
Well, I mean, my own family, did get that beach house. there’s that, which is always great. And it’s actually, it has been a wonderful vacation home for us. And then also an investment opportunity. and it just helps build that generational wealth too. Cause like the whole idea behind it was like gifting it to the younger generation of our family going forward. but it is always really exciting to see, especially first time home buyers, or first time investors, like really

Kristen Knapp (15:43)
Yeah.

Rashelle Newmyer (16:06)
really accomplished something. I’m heavily involved in a group out here. It’s women investing in real estate and it’s just a full group of female investors, flippers, some of them are lenders, hard money, gals, contractors, painters, all the things, right?

and seeing someone in that group do their first project from start to finish. And then they partner with a realtor and stuff to get it back on the market and all those things. But it’s pretty cool and really empowering to see people be creative and find ways to build wealth for their family outside of their regular nine to five job.

Kristen Knapp (16:39)
And I think kind of what you said about your beach house, I think people might think that if they have an investment property, it means it’s just for rental and they can’t use it. But that’s not true. You can still enjoy it yourself as well.

Rashelle Newmyer (16:51)
yeah, well, and it

really also just depends too on like how you rent it out and like what management companies and stuff you use. we use a management company where we’re on multiple platforms and, ⁓ that way too, we’re not priced too high, too low. They use the algorithm so that we’re priced competitively with the hotels and the other short-term rentals. But in that portal, we can go in and block out the dates. We want to use it as a family. And there’s somebody from my family there at least once a

if not multiple times a month. So like we do rent it, I would say probably 65 to 70 % of the year, but we use it quite a bit.

Kristen Knapp (17:28)
And then how are you renting it out? What platforms do you use?

Rashelle Newmyer (17:31)
Yeah,

well we use a management company so we’re currently using Vacasa and they do a lot of I have talked to other investors are like I don’t want to pay management company but again it’s like what is your time worth and also what do you need to accomplish with your rental and what does the city and county require so like for example where our beach house says the city and the county require someone to be able to respond to the house with keys within 30 minutes if an emergency happens and so

Vakasa supplies that person for us. They have boots on the ground there. They supply the housekeeping, handyman. So if a pipe bursts at midnight, Vakasa’s taking care of it instead of us trying to figure out who’s going out to the beach to get this taken care of. Linen, all of that kind of stuff. They also handle all the transient tax, all of that stuff. So we do pay them a percentage of the profits, but for us it’s just worth it to not have to mess with any of that stuff, and it helps us.

Kristen Knapp (18:11)
Right?

Rashelle Newmyer (18:27)
all the requirements that the city and the county want us to meet. So we’re on the up and up with everybody, which is peaceful.

Kristen Knapp (18:33)
Yeah, I I absolutely

agree. Your time is worth a lot of money. So to be able to have someone who just handles it and keeps you compliant with everything, I think that’s a very good investment.

Rashelle Newmyer (18:37)
Yeah.

Yeah, well with them because they are such a large company like we’re on like Expedia, Airbnb, VRBO, like we’re on all the platforms and if one of us was managing it ourselves, like we like someone could check it out on Airbnb and then VRBO and then we’d have to like make all these like phone calls like, sorry, we’re double blacked. And like this avoids all of that because it’s all through one system, which is nice.

Kristen Knapp (19:07)
Yeah, and it’s a lot of admin to go back and forth through platforms and message people. Yeah, totally. That’s awesome. then so kind of keeping in the theme of maybe misconceptions about homeownership and all of that, can you just talk about the current landscape of real estate? I know that a lot of people have some fear in the market and interest rates and stuff like that. I would love to hear you just kind of talk about that and what you think.

Rashelle Newmyer (19:09)
Definitely. Yeah.

Yeah, well, there is definitely a lot of misconceptions out there and not always like the most accurate information. I would just caution everybody to keep in mind whether it’s real estate or anything that like fear creates clicks and people, you know, to engage with stuff. So a lot of times they’ll lead with, you know, fear tactics. But

One thing we hear here a lot in Portland is that like prices are going down. Houses are like down 20 % in pricing. And that’s not necessarily true. What’s happening is a lot of times sellers are seeing what happened a few years ago and prices were going on the market higher and higher. The market has leveled out a little bit here where we’re not just like skyrocketing with prices because the interest rates are also higher, right? But so it’s happening as people are overpricing their homes and they

at the market and then they’re doing a price reduction. And then the news reports like, Portland’s down 20%. And I was like, we’re not actually down 20%. We’re still above what we have. still are, prices or homes are still selling higher than they have in the past. It’s just some are going on the market much higher than they should. And then they’re reducing. So like there’s a little bit of misconception on what’s actually happening with the value of homes. The prices are still going up. I have clients that wanted to buy two years ago.

and decided to wait in that same house that they wanted to buy two years ago is more money today. like, they, cause they thought, we’ll wait with the interest rates being higher, people start lowering their prices of their homes. And that’s not really happening because supply and demand is still an issue across our state as well as the nation. So I think that’s one of the biggest misconceptions. And then sometimes too, people are like, well, I want to wait until interest rates hit 5 % again. Totally understand that. But if

If can afford to buy with what interest rates are today, which is like hovering around seven, right? If you can afford to buy today, you’ll still end up saving money because once they hit 5%, you’re going to see houses go again for like 50 to 100 grand over and you’re going to have bidding wars again because everyone’s going to rush back to the market trying to take advantage of a lower interest rate. So if you can buy now and sit until interest rates go down, you can always refinance when interest rates go down. Obviously don’t buy now if you can’t afford it. If you can’t afford the current interest rate.

in that house, we would never encourage you to do that, But if you can, I wouldn’t wait. I would go ahead and buy now because you’re gonna end up paying more for the house, a larger ticket price. So you might have a lower interest rate, but you’re gonna pay a bigger ticket price and it’ll be more frustrating because you’re gonna be going against a lot more buyers.

Kristen Knapp (22:03)
Right. Well,

I think, you know, from everything you said, it’s just so important to partner with a realtor that knows what they’re doing and gets it and gets it.

Rashelle Newmyer (22:11)
Totally, yeah, it just understands

the roller coaster of the market and what could potentially happen.

Kristen Knapp (22:15)
And understands the data as well, because I agree with that

data can be manipulated and it’s nice to have that other side of it and kind of hear why things are happening. But yeah.

Rashelle Newmyer (22:26)
Yeah. Yeah.

Well, and a lot of people too still think that like if a house has been sitting on the market, cause we were seeing houses fly on and off the market for a couple of years while interest rates were lower. And right now the average days on markets like 75. And so then people start to think like, well can take advantage. This house has been on the market 50 days. I’m going to offer 60 grand less. And half the sellers are like, no, I just won’t sell them.

Kristen Knapp (22:51)
I’m no.

Rashelle Newmyer (22:51)
are like, I guess you don’t want to sell it. And I’m like, well, no, not for that price. You know what I mean? Because

like, if someone’s selling right now, it’s because they really need to. I mean, like 80 % of mortgages out there right now are around 3%. So someone’s selling right now they’re willing to give up that 3%, it’s because they’re moving for work, their family is growing, they need more space, they need a different kind of space, you know, things like that. But most of them will figure it out to keep the 3 % versus take a lowball offer.

So it’s all those kinds of things and educating buyers and sellers on that too. Like, you are kind of overpriced. This $60,000 offer is actually pretty reasonable within the market or they’re priced right. $60,000 and you’re asking just for the heck of it because they’ve been on the market a few days. That’s not really fair. They’re probably going to say no and you’re going to offend them. So it’s just walking everybody through the different storylines or what could be going on.

Kristen Knapp (23:20)
Right.

Thank

Yeah, absolutely. I’m sure that’s a huge part of the job.

Rashelle Newmyer (23:50)
Yeah, for sure.

Kristen Knapp (23:51)
So we’re, I mean, it’s gone quick. We’re running out of time, but I would love for you to talk about your podcast. It seems awesome.

Rashelle Newmyer (23:57)
yes.

Thank you so much. So I did launch the real turf who wines podcast just as past March. it’s a wine as in like drinking, not whining. but, ⁓ it’s cause I’m here in the beautiful Oregon wine country. And so it’s a podcast about business and real estate over glasses of wine. So I like to have guests on and we either talk about real estate stuff, or we’ll talk about their local business owners, entrepreneurs, things like that. And then of course I have different people from the wine industry.

on as well. They just talked about wine in general and what’s going on with them.

Kristen Knapp (24:29)
I love

that. Is there an Oregon producer that you love?

Rashelle Newmyer (24:33)
my gosh, that’s like choosing your favorite child. I don’t know if I could say which one, but I Oregon’s known for Pinot Noir, so if you like Pinot Noir wine, we are definitely the stop for you. But Big Bold Reds is what we do out here. But you will learn if you listen on the podcast that there are quite a few other options as well.

Kristen Knapp (24:35)
Yeah.

Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s so fun. you know, sprinkle a little fun culture.

Rashelle Newmyer (24:58)
Yeah, well I love lying

and I love talking about business and I was like, let’s just put these babies together.

Kristen Knapp (25:04)
That’s so

fun. I mean, getting the guests to have a glass of wine, that makes them spill more gospel.

Rashelle Newmyer (25:09)
Yeah, well I’ve noticed that like

really great conversations happen over wine and people tend to relax and then they’re not as nervous like, I’m on a podcast. Like they’re like, I’m just having a conversation with Rochelle. It’s no big deal. And with that being said too, I have had people on that are sober or don’t drink wine and stuff and like we still have great conversations. And like so it’s not all about the wine but it’s just a fun bonus.

Kristen Knapp (25:13)
Hold on.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And there’s a lot of great non-alch vines now where they do, yeah. Definitely. Well, where can people find this podcast and where can people find you?

Rashelle Newmyer (25:35)
Definitely, yeah. It’s a whole industry right now is mocktails and non-alcoholic beverages for sure.

Yeah, well, so on all social platforms, I’m Realtor Rochelle and then the podcast is the Realtor Who Wines. So you can find that on YouTube and Instagram or any mainstream podcast programs that you like, like Spotify or Audible or Apple Music, any of those. It’s on all of that.

Kristen Knapp (26:03)
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here today. Everybody, please check that out and please contact Rochelle if you’re in the Portland market. But it sounds like you have… There you go. She probably has the best recommendations too. ⁓ Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And yes, if you’re listening, please check out all of Rochelle’s links and we will see you back next time. Thank you so much.

Rashelle Newmyer (26:11)
Yeah, even if it’s just for a glass of wine, reach out. ⁓

Yeah.

Thank you, I appreciate you.

Sounds good. Bye

everyone.