It all seems normal, but there is a new normal emerging. To know if you are participating in today’s real-world rental market, here are a few test questions:

As a non-profit organization, our Board of Directors work thousands of hours per year with no compensation. Our meetings are open to members, and I received this note from a new member who showed up as a guest this month: “Thank you for hosting me last night at the board meeting, I really enjoyed the content of the meeting and the crew. Last week Lynn mentioned during the happy hour that the board is a tight group. After meeting the board last night, I could not agree more.”

It’s got me worked up and I know that I am not alone. It’s sort of disheartening to learn that we property owners are not a protected class. For all of you that have written letters, showed up to testify and signed checks, thank you. For those of you who have volunteered at Rental Housing Alliance Oregon, a huge thank you. And you can see by my mood, that it may not seem like a lot is happening all at once. But sometimes I wonder what options I’d have if I didn’t show up…

The City of Portland enacted its Renter Protection ordinance in February 2016, as a temporary emergency measure to address the city’s housing crisis. When they did this, they decided to leave exempted any owner with only one Portland rental unit from being affected. As this all occurred, there was a lot of discussion, but not an uproar. A lawsuit was filed against the city, however it lost in court.

As I begin to yawn and nod, I suddenly jolt into remembering how hard it was sometimes to get a place rented! I recall how back then, my policy was to keep my rents and terms as favorable as I could for my tenants for fear of having vacancies, because they were not easy to fill. I reflect on how I would actually coddle my tenants (I used to go over and change Thelma’s lightbulbs!) In those days my goal was to keep my tenants for as long as possible and I got to know a lot of them pretty well.