House wanted in Portland!

July 5, 2011 8:43 AM

Portland OR mefis: We are in love with the St. Johns area in Portland Oregon. So much we want to move there and rent a house, not an apartment. Are there rental agents specializing in this kind of rental in this wonderful area?
posted by Freedomboy to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

A few years ago i was looking to rent a house in the same neighborhood, and i searched in vain for a rental agent. I ended up pounding the pavements and scouring the local papers. I eventually found one by the water, but was beaten to it by another person! I moved to Beaverton instead!
posted by ramix at 11:04 AM on July 5, 2011

I don't think Portland has a lot of rental agents, period, and that goes double if you're trying to rent a house instead of an apartment. Most houses are going to be rented directly by the owner and your best bets are probably The Oregonian's classifieds and Craigslist.

If I were trying to rent in such a specific neighborhood, I would probably also try making flyers and putting them in coffee shops in the area.

I know someone who's trying to sell a house in St. John's right now but I don't think that's what you're asking. (Nice house though -- facing the water :) ). If it is, though, send me a memail.
posted by hungrytiger at 12:26 PM on July 5, 2011

I've never heard of rental agents in the Portland area. Everyone I know uses Craigslist.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:31 PM on July 5, 2011

We recently got a rental house from Legacy Realty NW. They are a realty company, but have a subsidiary that does rentals. I don't know if they have houses in the St. Johns area in particular, but the ones we looked at were all over Portland and in Vacouver too, so it's likely.
posted by tacodave at 2:03 PM on July 5, 2011

We've spent the last 10 days searching for rentals all over Portland (it's been our full time 18 hour a day occupation). St. John's is one of the places we've looked and there is certainly stuff there. Things tend to move pretty fast. I would suggest checkin gout www.padmapper.com which trolls through craigslist and maps stuff for you. Padmapper can be a bit laggy and buggy so try the multnomah county section of craigslist, it has most everything.

The main property management companies in the area seem to be Mainlander and PPI based on what we've seen.

As mentioned above, Craigslist is probably where 95% of the rentals end up regardless of where they are from.
posted by iamabot at 2:55 PM on July 5, 2011