Is Now the Time to Buy in Portland? Condo Investing Strategy Explained

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Brian Johnson, a seasoned real estate agent and investor in Portland. Brian shares his journey into real estate, the keys to his business growth, and insights into the current market conditions in Portland. He discusses his investment strategies, the importance of client engagement, and how he overcomes obstacles in his real estate career. Brian emphasizes the significance of being proactive in the market and offers valuable advice for potential investors.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Brian C Johnson Homes’ Website
    • Brian Johnson on LinkedIn
    • Brian C Johnson Homes on Facebook
    • Brian Charles Johnson on Facebook
    • Brian Charles Johnson on Instagram
    • Brian Johnson’s Phone Number: (503) 957-5587

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Brian Johnson (00:00)
  I think I’m really trying to tap in with some of my investor clients and telling them that now is a great time to buy a condo in Portland. ⁓ They’re undervalued and I know their values will come back up as the city continues to move forward and ⁓ repair some of the ⁓ issues that they’ve been dealing with. I think it’s a great time.

  Michelle Kesil (01:57)
  Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Brian Johnson, who is a real estate agent as well as investor in the Portland area. So excited to have you here today, Brian.

  Brian Johnson (02:16)
  Thank you, Michelle.

  Michelle Kesil (02:17)
  Awesome. So let’s dive in. For those who are not familiar with you and your work yet, can you share what your main focus is?

  Brian Johnson (02:24)
  Primarily, ⁓ I am a ⁓ residential and condominium specialist here in Portland, selling residential real estate. ⁓ I work under the brand ⁓ Windermere Realty Trust, and I also have my own brand, Brian C. Johnson Homes.

  Michelle Kesil (02:40)
  Awesome, and how did you get started as an investor and in the real estate industry in general?

  Brian Johnson (02:45)
  Sure, yeah, that’s actually what motivated my getting licensed about 10 years ago. I was the real estate director for the local media here, the local newspaper, the Oregonian in OregonLive.com. And I ran a ⁓ team of 10 salespeople that basically trained agents, how to market, fair housing laws, things like that, back when newspapers used to be the go-to source for realtors.

  and people looking for homes. During that time, I picked up a number of investment properties of my own, managed them myself. And ⁓ when the newspaper industry started to shrink and change, I decided it was a good time to jump out of that and get licensed and start selling real estate here in Portland, which is what I did back in about 2017.

  Michelle Kesil (03:37)
  Awesome, and is Portland the only market that you’re serving?

  Brian Johnson (03:41)
  I’m licensed both in Washington state and Oregon. So I do ⁓ sell in the Vancouver, sort of the Southwest Washington ⁓ area. ⁓ Vancouver is right across the river from Portland. So ⁓ it’s very natural, you know, and easy for me to help clients look for properties in that region as well. But primarily it’s Portland. ⁓ I do go out to the Oregon coast occasionally and down into the Willamette Valley.

  which is where our wine region is in Oregon. But primarily it’s Portland ⁓ and Vancouver.

  Michelle Kesil (04:19)
  And what do you feel have been some of the main keys that made the biggest difference in allowing your business to grow and run smoothly?

  Brian Johnson (05:14)
  I think a big game changer for me was ⁓ maybe seven years ago, I took what we call in the industry, the Ninja Installation ⁓ course. It’s a four-day course. It teaches you best practices in real estate. ⁓ once I got out of that course, I was really inspired and basically have adopted their ⁓ guidelines on a daily basis. And that’s helped me.

  That includes ⁓ things like writing your goal down 25 times every day by hand, ⁓ starting the day with three gratitudes, ⁓ having touch points every day. I try to do at least four touch points with clients every day. I write cards every day. ⁓ And I try to reach out at least two, three times a week and have a face-to-face, either coffee or

  lunch ⁓ with clients or potential clients. And I do that all in the morning and which frees my afternoon up to look at property. like to tour property just to see what’s going on in the market. So that system really has, I think, helped me to succeed in this market.

  Michelle Kesil (06:31)
  Yeah, absolutely. I think that those extra signs and ways of showing Kara can really move the needle.

  Brian Johnson (06:40)
  They can. In addition, I ⁓ have a business partner, her name is Andrea. She works with me part-time. We ⁓ also do events every year. For example, ⁓ there is a home called the Piddick Mansion in Portland. It was actually the first newspaper publisher’s home built up on the top of the hill overlooking Portland. We’ve invited our clients for a personal tour of the home this weekend.

  We’ve got about 30 clients coming to tour the mansion in two different time slots. And it’s a great time for us to connect with clients and just find out what’s going on in their lives as well.

  Michelle Kesil (07:22)
  Yeah, amazing. And what are you most focusing on solving or scaling to next in your business? ⁓

  Brian Johnson (07:29)
  Very good question. This year, it feels different. I can’t even really put my finger on it. ⁓ But I think in my past experience, when it feels a little sluggish or slow, I really just drill down on my daily routine and try to make as many connections as I can. ⁓ We’re really focusing on ⁓ meeting our

  gross revenue goals for the year. set those up every December ⁓ and we try to manage them monthly just to make sure that by the end of the year we’re either hitting our goals, achieving, ⁓ going over the goals or coming very close. And we’ve been very fortunate to have ⁓ been able to meet those goals almost every year since I’ve started the Ninja practice.

  Michelle Kesil (08:20)
  Awesome. And what is the ninja practice? Is that what you were mentioning earlier?

  Brian Johnson (08:25)
  Yeah, that’s what I’m mentioning earlier. It’s sort of a guideline for realtors to use to stay connected, stay motivated, ⁓ and really be in their business working it.

  Michelle Kesil (08:40)
  Awesome. And when you are working on your personal investments, what does that look like? Are you doing like single family, multi family? What does that part of your business look like?

  Brian Johnson (08:52)
  Yeah,

  think for myself, my own personal portfolio, ⁓ I’m very hands-on. I don’t, for example, I have a couple of, ⁓ I have a home on the Oregon coast and I’ve got two rentals in the Portland market. ⁓ And the Portland market rentals I manage myself and I do short-term rentals through Airbnb and VRBO. I do my own cleaning.

  And that’s been very, very successful here in Portland. The Beach House, do have a management company that rents that for me. And, you know, it’s all designed to help build my net worth so that when I retire, I have a good positive source of income. I should mention too that in my business, I have help other than

  The ninja practice that I abide by every day, I do employ a marketing company called Fusion. And what they do is they do my social media, they do my snail mail, they do a lot of design, branding. ⁓ And that really helps me clear up my day so that I’m able to do the things that ⁓ I think are more important, like the face-to-face appointments and really connecting with my SOI.

  Michelle Kesil (10:16)
  Yeah, amazing to have that support to lean on.

  Brian Johnson (10:54)
  Very much so. In addition, Fusion offers, I have a concierge number that I advertise to the community at large and my clients, and it’s for home improvement. So if you need an electrician or a plumber or a landscaper, you can call my concierge number, which is backed up by Fusion and they have vetted contractors in the area and will help my clients ⁓ and consumers.

  connect with good contractors in the area.

  Michelle Kesil (11:23)
  Awesome. And so what is the market like in Portland right now? Is there any sort of insights that you have for, yeah, go ahead.

  Brian Johnson (11:34)
  Good question. ⁓

  Yeah, well, here we are in February and ⁓ sales year over year are down ⁓ pretty significantly. The condo market in Portland is very soft. ⁓ Most condos right now, and I think what industry leaders are saying is insurance companies have raised their rates.

  HOA fees have gone way up in a lot ⁓ of the condo buildings that we sell. And since the pandemic, the city of Portland has had some issues, although they’re doing a good job of turning things around. But ⁓ the pandemic really set up this idea that people don’t want to be in a closed quarters with others, like in an elevator touching buttons and things like that. I think we’ve moved beyond that, but

  still sales are sluggish and there are lot, there’s a huge amount of inventory on the market here. So there’s the competition is high, which is driving prices down.

  Michelle Kesil (12:42)
  Yeah, it makes sense. And are people looking for investment properties there? Is that something that the market is offering? Yeah.

  Brian Johnson (12:49)
  Well, that’s, yeah,

  another good question. I think I’m really trying to tap in with some of my investor clients and telling them that now is a great time to buy a condo in Portland. ⁓ They’re undervalued and I know their values will come back up as the city continues to move forward and ⁓ repair some of the ⁓ issues that they’ve been dealing with. I think it’s a great time.

  thinking maybe ⁓ you’re at that point in your life where you want to have a great home to live in in retirement, if you might be selling your larger home. Think about moving into a condo, it’s no yard work, there’s a lot of positives around buying a condo at a certain point in life. For myself, ⁓ my partner and I actually are in the process of purchasing a condo for that very reason that

  you know, in five, six, seven years when we decide to retire, we’ll sell our large house and have that condo, which we will rent right now until we decide to use it. So there are a lot of different ways you can approach it ⁓ and, ⁓ you know, that work for your, for your own scenario.

  Michelle Kesil (14:05)
  Yeah, absolutely. Is there any advice you would share for someone that’s looking to invest in the area?

  Brian Johnson (14:52)
  Well, I think my advice would be, don’t delay. think markets change quickly. And ⁓ if you’re ready, you’re either ready to sell or ready to buy, do it. And don’t wait around for things to change because as we know, they could get worse or they could get much better. ⁓ It’s just make it work for you. I always tell my clients that. If you’re ready to go, do it now. And ⁓ things will work out.

  Michelle Kesil (15:21)
  And are you looking to continue expanding your investment portfolio and grow in that as well?

  Brian Johnson (15:27)
  You know, I’m at the point in my life where I am thinking of the opposite really. I’ve done a lot of investing in my time. I’m close to retirement age and I am just sort of thinking about ⁓ really downsizing and that’s why I talked about buying the condo and will eventually sell my larger home. ⁓ It’s always good to be planning for that period because it comes quickly.

  Michelle Kesil (15:57)
  Yeah, for sure. What is an obstacle or hurdle that you’ve overcome in your real estate journey that now you can have the lesson to share?

  Brian Johnson (16:07)
  an obstacle or hurdle.

  Gosh, that’s a really good question. think ⁓ for myself, it’s as an agent, just getting over the fear of not knowing something. I think right now in our industry, we have so many tools to learn something on the spot. Let’s just say you have a client that wants to sell vacant land.

  ⁓ This happened to me a few years ago. I didn’t have a lot of experience and I quickly just jumped in, found the tools that my brokerage offered me, did a quick class on what it takes to sell vacant land and then I was prepared and I continued to learn. So now I’ve got that as an experience under my belt ⁓ and I’m very, very confident in learning how to price land and sell land.

  Michelle Kesil (16:59)
  Yeah, his land, a big opportunity in your area.

  Brian Johnson (17:03)
  Not really. I wish it were.

  ⁓ We have an urban growth boundary in Portland and I think the bigger challenge for us as realtors is how to help our clients ⁓ optimize their current ⁓ piece of property. And by that I mean, does it make sense to build an ADU on the property? Because in Portland,Brian Johnson (00:00)
  in some areas you have the opportunity to build two additional dwelling units on your property.

  And so helping do the numbers for my clients to find out if that makes sense, connecting with the right contractors and builders to build the right structure and make sure that it meets all the permitting rules and ⁓ really is a ⁓ benefit to your investment portfolio, meaning that it’s not gonna cost you more than what you’re gonna get in return. So that’s been a really fun project for me to work on and I’ve successfully

  done so with a number of clients here in Portland.

  Michelle Kesil (00:35)
  Awesome. And so what is something that you’re looking forward to as far as like any opportunities that you want to, you know, over or like get to in the market?

  Brian Johnson (00:49)
  You know, I think I’m really excited about this condo situation. ⁓ So looking at not only ⁓ investments for myself, but for my clients in the Portland area, ⁓ touring a lot of condos, looking at the equations, know, HOAs, what the overall cost is, and bringing some of those ⁓ opportunities to my larger client base.

  to in Portland. I think it’s a great time to invest right now. Things are on the upswing. Our city is changing in a good way and condos are still undervalued. So ⁓ I think that’s really the focus I’m going to be looking toward over the next year or two.

  Michelle Kesil (01:34)
  Awesome, that’s an exciting opportunity.

  So before we begin to wrap up here, if somebody wants to reach out, connect, and learn more about what you’re up to, where can people find you and connect with you?

  Brian Johnson (01:45)
  Sure. ⁓ You can call me or text me directly at 503-957-5587 or visit my website which is ⁓ bcjohnsonhomes.com and ⁓ everything is there. I’ve got a lot of different ⁓ links set up to talk about what I’m doing here in the market and

  will also help educate you on what’s happening in the real estate market currently.

  Michelle Kesil (02:15)
  Amazing. Well, I appreciate your time and your story. Thank you so much for being here.

  Brian Johnson (02:20)
  Thank you. Thank you for having me.

  Michelle Kesil (02:22)
  And for the listeners that are tuning into the show, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Brian who are building real businesses and we will see you all on the next episode.