Bluestone and Hockley Real Estate Services

UPDATED 21-DEC-2011

Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services is pleased to announce that it has recently added The Villas on Lake Oswego to its growing portfolio of managed home owners’ and condominium associations…[...]

UPDATED 13-DEC-2011

Mandarin Enterprise was an import/export company located in Montecito, OR. The owner of the company, Patrick Cook, was extremely busy traveling the world,looking for opportunities to expand his business. Since Mandarin Enterprise was expanding, Patrick thought he should hire a reliable person to help him manage the business and take care of it in his absence. Hence, before making his next trip, he hired Martin Gambler as his new office manager…[...]

UPDATED 11-NOV-2011

On October 21st, the commercial real estate brokerage of Sperry Van Ness | Bluestone & Hockley held their first semi-annual investors forum, Charting The Northwest Multifamily Marketplace: How To Thrive In The New Reality at the Multnomah Athletic Club in Portland, Oregon. An audience of 160 attendees filled the room to hear Scott Selke, Director of Financial Services for PPR Global Research/CoStar Group, Inc., Clyde Holland, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman for Holland Partner Group, and Robert Noble, Senior Vice President & Multifamily Real Estate Executive at Sterling Savings Bank, discuss the current state and future of the Portland and SW Washington multifamily marketplaces…[...]

UPDATED 7-NOV-2011

Typically when investors consider purchasing an investment property, they inspect the property as part of their due diligence and also review the proforma income and expense reports provided by the seller. In addition, the investors review the rental income and expenses to make a decision according to their comfort level and ability to raise cash (i.e. obtain financing to close the transaction)…[...]

UPDATED 28-OCT-2011

Community Association Management recently added Columbia Ridge Houseboat Owners’ Association to their portfolio. Located on the bank of Columbia river, this 50 unit community is a unique addition to the Community Association Management portfolio as this is the first association of its kind that we will manage…[...]

UPDATED 11-OCT-2011

It’s not news that the current Social Security and Medicare programs are not sustainable. In fact, with the first wave of baby boomers already eligible for Social Security and first becoming eligible for Medicare in 2011, the outlook is bleak for each program unless significant reforms are made. In an attempt to bolster the Medicare program, as part of the over-1,000-page and much-publicized “Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010,” Internal Revenue Code Section 1411 was enacted…[...]

UPDATED 4-OCT-2011

Bluestone & Hockley’s Commercial Department held a fund raising event at Menlo Park to benefit the Menlo Park Boosters Club…[...]

UPDATED 13-SEPT-2011

Setting the stage:
Owners who are selling their real estate assets are doing so for many reasons:
Large Class-A properties (“core assets”) are currently achieving high premiums upon sale.
Partnerships are breaking up because investor partners need money.
Many properties bought in the run-up (2005-2008) are not performing so sellers must unload, even if they have to take a loss…[...]

UPDATED 6-SEPT-2011

Bryce Higgins, Maintenance Manager, is all set to teach at Metro Multifamily Housing Association’s 18th Annual Spectrum educational conference and trade show. Bryce will be teaching two separate maintenance classes; one for Administrators and the other for Property Managers. Some of the topics Bryce will be covering are…[...]

UPDATED 26-AUG-2011

Cliff Hockley, President, Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services was recently quoted in the article titled Apartments hard to come by in Portland, and a little relief on the way by Elliot Njus….[...]

UPDATED 23-AUGUST-2011

Rachel Anne Apartments, one of the multifamily properties managed by Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services (B&H), was recently approved by City of Gresham to receive Apartment Rehabilitation Grant*. This program is offered exclusively to properties in Rockwood area.Located on Burnside Street, this was a golden opportunity for these apartments…[...]

UPDATED 5-AUGUST-2011

Portland’s rental market is flourishing, with vacancies among the lowest in the country. Property management companies warn, the rental boom means big business for scammers. In some cases, scammers are using Craigslist rental postings to lure in their victims.

Bonnie Williams of Oregon City says one such scam almost cost her $500. On Monday, she saw a Craigslist post for a house in Oregon City. “It had three bedrooms and a nice yard kids could pay in,” said Williams. The description of the house sounded like just what she was looking for and the price seemed unreal, $700. “I saw $700 and emailed them,” she recalled…[...]

UPDATED 3-AUGUST-2011

Now is the time to plan for the replacement of your fluorescent lights and ballasts! As an owner/investor of real estate you need to figure out what kinds of lighting you have, because significant changes have been mandated by the Federal Government in regards to your lighting fixtures…[...]

UPDATED: 15-JULY-2011

Lease

Strong Roots Education has leased 900 square feet of office space at 5816 SE Powell in Portland, OR from Spur Investments. Steve Morris of Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services brokered the transaction.

UPDATED 08-JULY-2011

Insurance is a critical piece of any real estate investment. Not just for the normal liability and fire reasons, but to deal with the travails of the tenants as well.

In the last year, we have had the opportunity to deal with significant issues that caused us to review insurance coverages at properties we manage:…[...]

UPDATED 30-JUNE-2011

Pamela Hill, CMCA, Senior Community Association Manager, was recently invited to serve on the OWCAM (Oregon Washington Community Association Managers) panel of experts for an important discussion regarding construction defects. The topic was “When Construction Defect Lawsuit Proceeds Do Not Cover All Expenses” and Pam covered some very important issues…[...]

UPDATED: 09-JUNE-2011

New Landlord/Tenant laws were passed by the 2011 Oregon Legislature and will go into effect January 1, 2012. These changes to the relationship between Landlords and Tenants were designed to be “tweaks” of the system. Landlords and Tenants worked hard before the session began to draft “repairs” to the act to update and clarify issues that both sides were facing. Legislators agreed and we now have the new law…[...]

UPDATED: 18-MAY-2011

I have just returned from a three week trip to Israel. I had many wonderful experiences, too many to chronicle, but I will try to summarize some of my key impressions here:

Residential Real Estate

What struck me the most about this visit (my fourth), was the amount of construction activity occurring. In one city close to Tel Aviv we counted eighteen (18) cranes building apartments (read condominiums). In Israel, the vast majority of construction is completed in rebar reinforced concrete (much like Mexico). In the large cities, due to land shortages, multistory buildings are being built to house the growing number of inhabitants…[...]

Final figures for the first quarter 2011 are not due out for a few weeks (late May), but based on earnings reports and call report filings from many smaller banks, Trepp offers its estimates of what final 1Q 2011 real estate and business loan delinquency results will be.  Note: These are preliminary estimates, not the [...]

UPDATED: 06-APR-2011

Protecting Tenants
On May 3, 2010, Oregon became authorized to enforce the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program. These Oregon laws were created in response to an EPA issued rule (April 22, 2008) requiring the use of lead safe practices and other actions aimed at preventing lead poisoning. The programs are now in effect in lieu of the federal renovation programs…[...]

UPDATED: 09-MAR-2011

Lease

Oregon Sports Medicine has leased 1,466 square feet of office space at 18664 SW Boones Ferry Rd. in Tualatin, OR from Mews II, LLC. Tom Sjostrom of Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services represented both the landlord and tenant.

UPDATED: 03-MAR-2011

Being aware of your online environment

As our tenants, clients and vendors become more computer centric, we need to keep focusing on our on line reputation.

You could have negative comments posted:

“I have lived under the management of this company for over two years and they have not fixed anything except a heater which promptly broke again and has not been fixed since.”…[...]

UPDATED: 09-FEB-2011

I got up early this morning fully invigorated. My goal for the day was to read our client and tenant surveys and make sure we were doing a good job of taking care of the properties we manage. You might ask why I care and it would be a good question…[...]

UPDATED: 28-Jan-2011

Bluestone & Hockley’s Community Managers foster community by understanding they can play a key role in educating HOA board members by sharing best practices. This month B&H used the classroom environment to deliver information to new board members…[...]

UPDATED: 26-Jan-2011

An uneasy political peace fell over the United States as the President and Congress navigated their lame duck session in December of 2010. The President was able to garner some level of bipartisan support that extended unemployment insurance in exchange for short term extensions of the Bush era tax breaks…[...]

UPDATED: 24-JAN-2011

Integra Realty Resources has released their IRR Viewpoint 2011- A National Real Estate Market and Industry overview. We are happy to direct you to this important real estate publication. Please click on this link to read their IRR-Viewpoint 2011 publication.

UPDATED: 24-JAN-2011

B&H University Class – Buying, Selling, & Operating Apartments – Class topics: Financial performance calculated, good or bad buy, problem areas in owning apartments, increase net operating income, financing issues, Portland apartment market..[...]