Mainlander Property Management Blog

Emergency Water Damage Tips

Mainlander Property Management — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:18:35 +0000

Don’t Wait!

Water damage, whether from broken pipes, sewer or drain back-ups, appliances, hot water heaters, toilet overflows, storms or fire damage, requires quick response. Sewage or flood waters carry dangerous bacteria and other contaminants. But even clean water can generate mold and other bacteria growth. Successful mitigation depends on your fast action and the nature of the damage.

Act Fast!

Fast action in the key to preventing further damage.

Don’t Panic!
Shut Off the Water Source
Turn Off Circuit Breakers
Sponge or Blot standing water from furniture
Place foil under wooden furniture legs
Remove any delicate or fragile items
Remove area rugs from wet carpeting
Pin up draperies wth a coat hanger

Get Help!

Fast action is critical. Mold and secondary damage to drywall and subfloors begins within hours.

Call your Property Manager immediately. If after hours, please call our On Call Service at 503-251-4466 for immediate assistance.

12 Nifty Ideas to Improve Your City

Mainlander Property Management — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 18:31:52 +0000

By Jeremy Adam Smith

Credit: Broken City Labs

Since our launch in October, Shareable.net has published lots of nifty DIY ideas for making cities more sociable, resilient, and sustainable. Here are twelve of my personal favorites, ranging in scale from the simplest and most personal to the most complicated and collective:

1. Start a Sock Exchange (or a Barter Wall): My wife walked into a laundromat seeking coins for a dollar, and there she discovered the “sock exchange.” It’s obvious, isn’t it? And not terribly world-shaking, I suppose. Yet I think gestures like the sock exchange make city living more fun, and they suggest another way to live, where resources (like socks!) are conserved and shared. Perhaps you’re not in a position to facilitate the sharing of socks, but the same idea can be applied in different, creative ways: In Eugene, Oregon, Omer and Dave Orian put up a board in their restaurant to facilitate barter among customers. That’s something anyone can do.

2. Plant a Habitat Garden: When friends went to the city and asked if we could plant a habitat garden (which exists to support wildlife) in our neighborhood playground, the park and recreation department said “yes,” and even provided tons of support. Now, of course, we have to maintain the garden — and that’s a good thing. When my friend Karen took her son Argus to check on the plot, “he pointed out what he planted, and his friend Ezra planted,” says Karen. “Then he pointed to a bunch of other plants to find out who planted what. I felt like he had a sense of pride that he and his friends could make something grow.” What a gift! And here’s how you can do it yourself.

3. Share Your Car: In the context of this website, “share your car” does not qualify as a nifty idea; here at Shareable.net, that’s a commonplace one, and a no-brainer. But I mean something really specific: If you must own a car — most people feel like they do — please do use it in a way that reduces the number of other cars on the road. My neighbor and friend Noah has three cars, and he loves them all. My family has no car, but we feel pressure to give in and get one. Noah knows that he probably shouldn’t drive so much, but he hasn’t yet reached a place where he’s willing to give up a car or two. Instead, he makes it a point to give us rides when we absolutely need one, as a way of supporting our carfree lifestyle and reducing the pressure we feel to buy one. Noah’s not unique; I know lots of people who intentionally share their cars. That helps carfree people like us out, but it also helps the environment and helps tie our little community together. (Hey, want to organize a carfree day on your entire street? Sara Stout tells you how.)

4. Start a Stranger Exchange: “John Wilson stopped in Chicago during a road trip from Boston. He was walking by Wicker Park when he noticed a ‘totally anonymous and unsupervised’ local drop box where you could leave or take unwanted books and DVD’s,” writes Rachel Botsman. He wondered: Would something similar work in his city, Cambridge, MA? Wilson and friends launched the Stranger Exchange, which has been a huge success. “There is this unexpected curiosity and respect for something like this,” says Wilson. “I am not sure where it comes from. Perhaps people value things made with care and honor systems built on trust?” Why not start a Stranger Exchange in your town, and see what happens?

5. Share Your Yard: ”Yard-sharing has many benefits, from access to fresh food to stronger neighborhood connections to environmental sustainability,” writes Janelle Orsi. “But there are also potential pitfalls to sharing a garden, which you can avoid by discussing them early on with your neighbor.” Janelle walks the reader through all the steps to yard-sharing, from setting expectations to overcoming rules forbidding gardens in front yards. “After all, such rules are archaic and predate our society’s growing awareness of problems such as farmland depletion,” writes Janelle. “People everywhere have decided to grow food, not lawns!”

6. Turn Your Cornerstore into a CSA Pick-Up Point: When a University of San Francisco professor assigned her students to increase the sustainability of a corner store in the city’s diverse, low-income Western Addition neighborhood, they came up with a nifty suggestion: make the store a pick-up point for a local Community Supported Agriculture box. This is a brilliant idea: Life in dense cities revolves around corner stores, and making yours a CSA pick-up point overcomes a logistical obstacle to getting organic, locally grown food into urban hands. Why not walk over to your corner store right now and suggest this idea?

7. Organize a Community Swap Meet: Share Tompkins, a volunteer-run group based in Ithaca, NY, organizes monthly Community Swap Meets, “where people give-away and barter everything from homemade apple butter and original art, to music lessons, and massage,” as Shira Golding writes in her Shareable how-to article. Beyond the tangible activities, writes Shira, “we feel we are contributing to the creation of a social fabric rich in giving and sharing.” It’s such a simple, fun thing, and yet through neighborhood-level activities like swap meets, I think we can glimpse another, even more shareable society.

8. Start a Skillshare: “Organizing a Skillshare is fun and easy, since everyone really has something to teach, and something to learn,” writes Meg Wachter in her how-to article. “The seeds for the Brooklyn Skillshare began in the Spring of 2009 when I attended a similar event in Boston, and was inspired by the weekend-long workshops offered on a regular basis, free of charge.” Though she had never attempted anything like it before, here’s the skillshare Meg managed to start in her own neighborhood:

9. Make a Memory Map of Your Neighborhood: ”I made a map of my neighborhood, intending to mark it with stories of people I had known, but quickly ran out of space,” writes Claire Kessler-Bradner. “I began to seek the participation of my neighbors, strangers and friends with whom I share this space. The intersection of my important places with the narratives of other lives lived in the neighborhood reveals an intrinsic connection to people I didn’t think I knew.” Claire is a trained artist, but anyone can create a “memory map” of his or her neighborhood.

10. Weatherize Your Home, the Shareable Way: ”The Cambridge MA group Home Energy Efficiency Team has been organizing monthly weatherization barnraisings for over a year,” writes Shareable reader George Mokray. The “barnraisings” save energy and money, of course, but they also build community. Here’s a little video of what they did:

11. Start a Farmers’ Market: This is not a small project, but a farmers’ market can enrich your neighborhood in countless ways. “One of the joys of having a neighborhood market is that it can become the equivalent of the village green,” writes Elizabeth Crane in “How to Start a Farmers’ Market.” “Many American cities lack a casual, consistent gathering place; a farmer’s market can fill that need. It can also be a platform for education on farm-related topics like the importance of eating locally grown and seasonal products, going green, buying organic, participating in composting, and general overall health.” (Need eggs more than veggies? Here’s how to start an urban chicken cooperative.)

12. Turn Libraries into Neighborhood Share Centers: We stumbled into this idea in a conversation on Shareable.net about what things should be more shareable. I suggested that libraries should lend out toys and games as well as books. Contributor Abby Quillen added:

Our public library loans out puppets and learning kits (with lots of small pieces), so games wouldn’t be much different. It seems like the public library would be a great place for a community to share more things, since libraries already have a record system set up for cataloging and lending. Our library lends out a device you can plug into your outlets to measure the electric usage of your appliances, and it’s incredibly popular. I also know of two different public libraries that lend out ukuleles.

An idea hit me: What if we re-conceptualized libraries as neighborhood share centers? So books would be just one part of the mix, along with musical instruments, toys, games, lawn mowers, tools — the local carshare and bikeshare pods could be based at the library as well. It’d be your one-stop-shop for shareable resources. But is this really a good idea? What would it take to make this idea a reality?

What are your nifty ideas for making cities even more shareable than they already are?

One Person’s Trash Could Save Another’s Life

Mainlander Property Management — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:26:06 +0000

By TERI WHITCRAFT, JUJU CHANG (@JujuChangABC) and OLIVIA KATRANDJIAN

Feb. 15, 2011

Josh Nesbit had a simple idea — one that turns old cell phones into lifesavers.

As the goalie on Stanford University’s soccer team, Nesbit earned a full scholarship. But it was his hustle off the field that makes him a superstar.

During his sophomore summer break four years ago, Nesbit volunteered at an AIDS clinic in Malawi, one of Africa’s poorest, least-developed nations.

His idea was to use high-tech open source software on a laptop, along with some solar power and give away old cell phones so that local health workers can work on the frontlines of global health.

In Malawi, 85 percent of the people live in rural areas and most survive on a dollar a day. Nesbit volunteered at St. Gabriel’s Hospital to help children with HIV.

“This particular hospital was serving about a quarter million people, spread a hundred miles in every direction. So you literally had patients walking 60, 80, a hundred miles to access care. Basically one nurse would get onto a motorcycle and drive 10 hours a day trying to track down patients,” Nesbit said.

For complete coverage and information on how you can personally make a difference, go to SaveOne.net.

Often community health workers, who travel miles to isolated African villages to see patients, have to lug boxes of medical records with them. Paper records can be lost or damaged, especially on long trips.

“The information you’re collecting in the field might not make it back to the higher level medical staff,” he said.

Nesbit realized that instead of biking or walking for hours on end, health workers and patients could instantly text each other if they just had the right technology.

Back at Stanford, surrounded by high-tech engineers, Nesbit found a software guru named Ken Banks who could help make it happen.

“There was a guy living out of a van on the edge of campus who was hacking away and creating this open-source software platform, called Frontline SMS. So basically, I took a copy of that software, a laptop, a hundred recycled mobile phones, and a plane ticket,” Nesbit said.

Back in Malawi, Nesbit set up an ad hoc network using solar panels, a laptop and cell phones. With the software, paper records could be transformed into text messages. Soon the health workers were texting a hundred miles in each direction.

“So someone out in the middle of rural Malawi will break their leg, or have an adverse reaction to their drugs, and the community health worker who now has a phone, will text into the local health facility, which might be 20 miles away, which might be 60 miles away,” Nesbit said. “[The workers are] texting from their homes or from their patients’ homes.”

The new technology allowed workers at St. Gabriel’s to respond to emergencies, diagnose patients, and keep track of their medical records, all via texts — saving time, resources, and lives.

“About 150 patients over six months received care who wouldn’t have been seen otherwise. The tuberculosis officer came up to me and he said, ‘Josh, we’re doubling the number of patients we’re treating for tuberculosis now,’” he said. “After six months at that point, we really were at the point of no return.”

But there was a problem: there weren’t enough phones to meet the demand. Then Nesbit had another great idea.

“I was hit with this statistic, that we’re discarding 500,000 cell phones every single day,” he said. “That means half a million phones are going into trash cans, and desk drawers daily.”

Ninety percent of old phones are put in the trash or stored in drawers. Each phone is worth between $15 and $50. Nesbit realized that by recycling just 1 percent of those phones, he could raise money to buy new phones for a million health workers.

“Your old phone will turn into two or three phones for health workers. Every one of those phones will connect another 50 to 100 families to emergency services and essential services,” Nesbit said.

With the money from old phones in the United States, 50 million people in Africa and across the globe can get better healthcare. Nesbit’s little idea has gone global.

With the help of Isaac Holeman, Nadim Mahmud and Dieterich Lawson, Nesbit created Medic Mobile, a nonprofit organization working in Malawi and about 10 other countries, helping approximately 3.5 million patients.

Nesbit also helped coordinate the 4636 Project, an effort to create an emergency communications channel after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

Working with the Office of Innovation at the U.S. Department of State, technology providers and Haitian mobile operators, a system was created to process text messages expressing urgent needs from the ground.

Using crowd-sourced translation, categorization and mapping, reports were created for first responders within five minutes of receiving an SMS. More than 80,000 messages were received in the first six weeks of operation, focusing relief efforts for thousands of Haitians.

“It’s your trash, but it turns into value, it turns into lives saved really quickly,” said Nesbit.

But Mobile Medic needs phones, any kind of phones, and if you recycle your old cell phone through their Hope Phone program, they can get enough credit to buy up to 20 new phones for health workers.

To find out how you can set up your own collection site or donate your phone, go to www.SaveOne.net

You can also send your old phone to:

Hope Phones Recycling Center 794 Industrial Court Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302

To find out how to send a phone and receive a postage-paid mailing label from Hope Phones, click HERE. And to find out about starting a collection dive in your area, click HERE.

The “Be the Change: Save a Life” initiative is supported in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Zero Waste Home

Mainlander Property Management — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:42:36 +0000

TIPS

Here are 10 tips in 8 areas to lower your waste at home. Each section is a condensed version of a posting on the subject, so please follow title links for more information on each section. For product recommendations, visit the store.
Before you start:
-Arm yourself with a reusable water bottle, a couple grocery totes, a few cloth bags and reusable jars and bottles.
-Get your 4R right. Refuse-Reduce-Reuse … Recycle only as a last resort.

KITCHEN

1- Welcome alternatives to disposables (paper towels, garbage liners, wax paper, aluminum sheets, disposable plates, cups, etc….): swap paper towels for reusable rags, swap sandwich baggies for kitchen towels or stainless containers, drop garbage liners all together (wet waste is mostly compostable anyways).

2- Buy in bulk or at the counter (see Zero Waste Grocery Shopping), bring reusable bags (dry goods), jars (wet items such as meat, deli, fish, cheese, oil, peanut butter) and bottles (liquids: oil, soy sauce, shampoo, conditioner).

3- At default of bulk, find a supplier (bring your jar to the ice cream shop, a pillow case to the bakery for your bread, or your bottles to the winery/brewery)… or make it ( mustard, salad dressing, hot sauce, jams, OJ, hummus, cookies, canned tomatoes).

4- Shop the farmer’s market: they’ll take the egg carton and the berries baskets back for reuse. Your veggies will also most likely be free of plastic and stickers.

5- Learn to love your tap water.

6- Use bulk castile soap as a dish/hand cleaner, baking soda as a scrubber (in a stainless Parmesan dispenser) with a compostable cleaning brush (a wooden one with natural hair). Choose dishwasher detergent in a cardboard box.

7- Turn your trash can into a big compost keeper. Use your tiny compost keeper as a trash can (on the market, the sizes for these seem to be reversed).

8- Reinvent your leftovers before they go bad. Go thru your recipe binder/box and only keep the recipes that can be achieved with zero waste in mind.

9- Invest in a pressure cooker (halves the cooking time).

10- YOU CAN ALSO… Reuse single-side printed paper for grocery shopping and errands list, use your lettuce cleaning water to water plants, open your oven after baking in the winter (cool your oven, warm your house)…

BATHROOM

1- Use 100% recycled and unbleached toilet paper individually wrapped in paper (if you have solar you could install an electrical washlet to your toilet sit).

2- Use a solution of baking soda/water/lavender essential oil in a spray bottle or an alum stone or straight baking soda (most effective) as anti-perspirant.

3- For shaving, (re)use a safety razor and shaving soap (usually wrapped in paper) or Alep soap (found in middle-eastern stores).

4- Refill your bottles with bulk shampoo and conditioner. If your hair is short, you also have the “no-poo” option: rinse your hair, massage baking soda in, then rinse, with vinegar for shine. Instead of hairspray, switch to lemon water in a spray bottle (see Recipes). To go longer between washes, substitute dry shampoo for cornstarch.

5- For body/face soap, find a package-free solid soap or bulk liquid castile soap. To exfoliate, switch to bulk baking soda or oatmeal for the face and salt for the body. For a mask, switch to bulk clays (French, Kaolin, Bentonite, etc…), mixed with water or apple cider vinegar.

6- Switch from toothpaste to homemade tooth powder (see Recipes), in a glass parmesan dispenser. And until we see a wooden compostable toothbrush on the US market, there are no right answers out there yet.

7- Reduce your cosmetics and consider homemade substitutes such as cocoa powder as bronzer and homemade balm that works on eyes, lips, hair and nails (see Recipes) and in lieu of disposable feminine products, invest in menstrual cup and reusable liners.

8- All you need for your nails is a nail clipper, stainless file and the homemade balm for moisture and shine.

9- Forget about Q-tips, they are not good for you anyways. Do your research.

10-YOU CAN ALSO… compost hair and nail clippings, put a brick in your toilet tank, collect water in a bucket while your shower heats and water your plants with it, and use zero waste cleaning: microfiber cloths for mirrors, hydrogen peroxide for mold, baking soda as scrub, a mix of baking soda and vinegar as drain cleaner (see Cleaning and Recipes)…

LAUNDRY AND CLEANING

1- Welcome natural cleaning alternatives: bulk castile soap on floors and sinks,
homemade all purpose cleaner (see Recipes), baking soda for scrubbing jobs
hydrogen peroxide for mildew.

2- Welcome alternative house cleaning tools: a metal scrubby on stainless, a wooden brush for light scrubbing, an old toothbrush for hard to reach places and microfiber cloths for everything else (counters, floor, fridge, etc… for mirrors and windows, just add water… no window cleaner needed).

3- Sweep your floors with a boar bristle broom, wash with a wet microfiber mop and a few drops of castile soap.

4- Use worn-out clothing items made into rags on your un-washable messes (wax/auto grease/glue/caulk).

5- Buy bulk dishwasher detergent or in a recyclable cardboard box and use white vinegar as a rinsing aid.

6- Let houseplants absorb toxins and clean your air. Open a window instead of plugging in an air freshener.

7- Laundry washing once a week saves time and dryer energy costs, use eco-friendly detergent, full loads, and cold water cycles as much as possible. Savon de Marseille, dishwasher detergent, lemon or hydrogen peroxide work great on stains.

8- Dry on a line when possible.

9- Iron fewer things and use a homemade starch in a stainless spray bottle (see Recipes).

10- YOU CAN ALSO… find a sustainable dry cleaner (one that offers a reusable garment bag and non-toxic cleaners), compost dryer lint and dust bunnies…

DINING AND ENTERTAINING

1- Remember to bring extra jars to the grocery store when shopping for company (including take-out).

2- Make finger foods for larger parties and consider serving tap water with lemon slices instead of fizzy water.

3- Use ceramic dishes, cloth dinner napkins and cloth appetizer napkins at all times.

4- Avoid the use of serving platters/dishes: When serving straight onto dinner plates, it simplifies, saves water from extra cleaning, and it allows for a plate presentation.

5- Find creative ways to decorate your table with few napkin folding tricks, discarded leaves/branches from the yard, or just seasonal fruit…

6- Reuse empty votive tins (and the wick base) to make new votive candles for company with bulk beeswax and lead-free wick.

7- Transfer your music onto your iPod: Donate your CD player and CD’s for others to enjoy.

8- Bring a jar of a homemade consumable, or your favorite bulk item wrapped in Furoshiki as a hostess gift. Give the gift of an experience as a birthday present.

9- Educate your friends about your zero waste efforts (so they don’t bring waste into your home)
10- YOU CAN ALSO… bring your own container for leftovers when dining out, use rechargeable batteries for those remote controls, try living without TV for a while…

OFFICE

1- Refuse, and therefore help stop the madness of the free-pen / free-pencil.

2- Use refillable stainless pen/pencils, white board markers and highlighters and donate extra office material (paper, pencils) to your public school’s art program.

3- Start your personal junk mail war, cancel your phone directories, and sign up for electronic bills and statements.

4- Reuse single-side printed paper for printing or making notepads held by a metal clip, reuse junk mail response envelopes and buy recycled paper products, packaged in paper.

5- Ditch the trash can, strive to use your compost and recycling bins exclusively.

6- Use, Reuse and Request recyclable paper packing material when shipping (incl. paper tape), print postage and addresses directly on your envelopes, use surface mail, use a return address stamp instead of stickers.

7- Reuse paper clips (available in bulk) instead of staples, or a staple-free stapler.

8- Use your library to read business magazines and books, sell your books or donate them to your library for other people to enjoy.

9- Use memory sticks and external drives instead of CD’s.

10- YOU CAN ALSO… use a power strip on your equipment, recycle your printer cartridges and cell phone, donate your unused computer to Goodwill, make paper with double-side printed paper, take unused packing material to your local shipping center…

CLOSET

1- Stick to minimal wardrobes, shoes and purses.

2- Only shop a couple times a year to avoid compulsive buys.

3- Buy mostly seconhand.

4- When buying new, buy quality with minimal tags (leave the shoe box at the store).

5- Be ruthless on fit, if it fits well, you’re most likely to wear it.

6- Bring a reusable bag for your purchases.

7- Donate unworn pieces (the most forgiving rule of thumb deadline being one year).

8- Keep some of your wornout clothes for rags and label the rest as “rags” for Goodwill to recycle.

9- Learn of few sewing tricks (like shortening a hem).

10- YOU CAN ALSO… take it to the tailor to fit it better so you’ll actually wear it, and keep a handkerchief in each one of your purses/bags…

MEDICATION

1- Keep only a minimal supply, so you can see what you have.

2- Ask your pharmacy to reuse your prescription jar. It’s illegal for pharmacies to refill them in CA, but your state might allow it..

3- Choose tablets (pain reliever, for example) in a glass or at default a plastic jar (usually a recyclable #2), instead of the tablets individually wrapped in aluminum/plastic and a box.

4- Do not buy jumbo size medication jars, they expire way before you can finish them.

5- Choose metal tubes instead of plastic.

6- Invest in a Neti pot: Great to clear out your sinuses with just water and sea salt.

7- Consider a few natural alternatives: a corn silk tea for prostate relief, a senna leaf tea for constipation relief or an oatmeal bath for skin relief.

8- Forgo the plastic band-aids and let it air-dry or use gauze and surgical tape, and hydrogen peroxide as an antiseptic.

9- Do not use everyday antibacterial products, they make bad bacteria stronger.

10- YOU CAN ALSO… reconsider your true need for vitamins (as opposed to a healthy varied diet) and use sunscreen moderately…

GARDENING

1- Use drought tolerant and native plants, replace your lawn with short native grasses.

2- Make room for compost, pee in your citrus and compost. Consider a worm compost for liquid fertilize.

3- Return plastic containers to the nursery.

4- Find bulk seeds.

5- Give away plants (also, landscaping rocks, fencing, irrigation piping, etc…) that you do not want anymore. Post them on the free section of Craigslist.

6- Find a bulk garden center, and get your dirt, rocks, compost, etc… in reusable sand bags.

7- Consider investing in an irrigation controller with a rainwater sensor.

8- Install rainwater and gray water catchments (check your city ordinances for the latter).

10- YOU CAN ALSO… Keep a minimal and quality tool selection made of metal and wood (which can be repaired more easily)…

Information provided by:

DailyGood.org. (April 13th 2011)

Metro GreenScene: Your Spring Guide to Great Places and Green Living

Mainlander Property Management — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:04:40 +0000

GreenScene provides a comprehensive calendar of nature activities, gardening workshops and volunteer ventures offered by Metro and more than 100 other organizations. To view the calendar please go to http://calendar.oregonmetro.gov/events/index.php

Spring cleaning: Green the garage. Too much stuff in the garage to fit the car or the bike? From that old, broken fridge to the vinyl bowling ball bag, ’tis the season’ for spring cleaning. Metro offers timely tips on reducing, reusing and recycling to get your gargae in shape for summer. For more information please go to http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=24197/level=1.

Information provided by:

Oregon State University Extension Service

CPO #7 Newsletter, Washington County/March 2011

Zillow Launches Rent Zestimates

Mainlander Property Management — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:21:54 +0000

Zillow is a real estate marketplace where homeowners, buyers, sellers, renters, real estate agents and mortgage professionals find and share vital information about homes and mortgages.

Zillow® has now launched “Rent Zestimates,” a one-of-a-kind tool that can be used as a starting point for determining a home or apartment’s estimated monthly rent price. The launch expands on Zillow’s popular Zestimate® home valuations and empowers renters and landlords with estimated rent prices for more than 90 million homes and apartments across the country.

Most people who move each year (70 percent) are renters(1), and, according to a recent survey by Ipsos(2), nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of current renters who were polled do not research fair rent prices before signing their lease. Rent Zestimate estimated rent prices offer a powerful new way for consumers to research prices for specific homes or apartments. In combination with additional market information on rentals, Rent Zestimates can help renters determine a fair rental price and negotiate before signing their lease.

Rent Zestimates are also a valuable tool for landlords. Information is especially hard to come by for “accidental landlords,” who represent one-fourth of respondents who are homeowners intending to move in the next three years and who are considering renting out their home, according to the survey. Most (69 percent) respondents said they will research similar rentals in their area to determine a price, but Rent Zestimates offer a unique data point for landlords to decide how much to charge.

Consumers can find Rent Zestimates on map searches and individual home detail pages on Zillow.com® and all Zillow mobile applications, including iPhone, iPad and Android apps.

“Buyers and renters are not exclusive categories – many people are considering both options when shopping for a new home. Similarly, many would-be sellers in today’s housing market are considering whether to become landlords rather than sell at a loss,” said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff. ”We created Rent Zestimates to empower people with information and data to make the right real estate decision for them.”

Zillow launched rental listings in late 2009, and today has nearly 300,000 apartments and homes listed for rent. Consumers can search Zillow’s rental listings by number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, and monthly payment – an attractive feature for the 27 percent of Americans who plan to move in the next three years and who will simultaneously search for both homes for rent and for sale.

Do I need a Property Manager?

Mainlander Property Management — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:23:57 +0000

Ask yourself the following questions

Do I have experience managing rental property myself?
Am I familiar with fair housing and landlord/tenant laws in the jurisdiction(s) where my property is located?
Do I have relationships with contractors that ensure I can get 24 hour service at reasonable prices?
Do I have a reliable means to determine fair market rent and returns on my investment property?
Do I know and have the proper notices and legal process to deal with non-paying tenants?
Do I have a current, professionally crafted lease and related agreements/forms to minimize my exposure to liability should a tenant sue?

If you answered “no” to any of the above questions, it might be prudent to hire a professional management team. The cost of one bad decision could more than offset the cost of hiring a professional manager to help you avoid the pitfalls of rental property ownership.

The 33rd Annual Shamrock Run in Portland!

Mainlander Property Management — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:52:24 +0000

There are so many outdoor activities in Portland, Oregon…but running is definitely one of the most popular!

March 13, 2011 was the 33rd annual Shamrock Run in Portland, Oregon! It is considered the opening event of Portland’s “running season”, (which includes races such as Bridge Pedal, Cityof Portland Triathlon, Hood to Coast Relay and the Portland Marathon!). But this particulur road race of 5K, 8K and 15K distances takes green-clad runners through the streets of downtown Portland!

This race has become a springtime staple for road runners. Attendance has skyrocketed, doubling in attendance in the last three years (over 5500 runners in the half marathon). This year they added an entertainment stage where musicians played bagpipes and sawed on fiddles as racers crossed the finish line! Participants vary from serious athletes to those that just go to dress in silly gear and enjoy the fun. Costumes are a big deal…which include people dressed like leprechauns! The Shamrock Run has a carefree attitude, being both a training session and a social event (where beer is served to the participants at the finish line!).

A portion of the net proceeds from this popular run will benefit Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, one of America’s leading pediatric health centers that sits right here in the heart of Portland, Oregon. It will help make possible comprehensive and innovative health care, education and research for children in need of specialized treatment.

Check out these websites at www.shamrockrunportland.com and www.ohsu.edu/xd/health/services/doernbecher.

Annual Mainlander Property Management Vendor Appreciation Luncheon

Mainlander Property Management — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:03:03 +0000

The Annual Mainlander Property Management Vendor Appreciation Luncheon was held on Thursday, February 17^th. It was another huge success! The festivities took place at Mainlander’s office in Lake Oswego and was attended by over 45 vendors.

They came from all over to enjoy some great food that was either prepared by a Mainlander staff member or brought in from local restaurants like Busters BBQ! Many even found room to enjoy a piece of the giant Tres Leche cake for dessert!

The food, conversation and networking opportunities were much appreciated by all. Over the course of the lunch, everyone had a chance to relax, enjoy conversation and network with each other while the Mainlander staff gave out exciting door prizes to some very lucky winners.

Some prizes and winners included a Portland City Grill Gift Certificate to Willamette Spa, a Nel Centro Restaurant Certificate to Pro Drain, a 2 night stay at Hotel Modera in Portland to Coho Electric and a 1 night stay at Hotel Andra in Seattle to Norm Jensen!!!

Mainlander Property Management appreciates their vendors and looks forward to this event each and every year. It’s a time to give back and say thank you for all the hard work that is put into by these individuals to help make Mainlander the great property management company it has grown to be!

Protect Your Neighborhood from Foreclosure Crime

Mainlander Property Management — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 17:13:54 +0000

With the foreclosure rate still high, chances are good that there may be a foreclosed home in your neighborhood. In a society where often we are too busy to know our neighbors, it is important to recognize a foreclosed home in order to protect your home and property.

Keeping an eye on the home is essential to your safety. Make it a point to drive by the home every day and notice if there are any obvious changes such as an open window or blinds. If someone has tried to break in, it may be obvious just by taking a quick look.

Even though you have always considered your neighborhood to be safe, having a foreclosed home on your street can be a magnet for vandalism or even a temptation for someone to break in. If someone decides to scope out a foreclosed home in order to see what may be left inside, they also might check out your home to see what they can easily steal from you. Bicycles that are left in your backyard are a temptation and an easysteal for someone who is scoping out a foreclosed home.

If you talk to your neighbors, keep tabs on the goings-on in your neighborhood by recognizing strange cars or people whom you have never seen before. It is important to keep an eye on who visits your neighbors and what cars might be parked on your street. If you see someone who appears to be suspicious, write down the license plate number and description of the vehicle and call the non-emergency number.

Pay attention to strange cars driving by slowly and pedestrians who look like they do not belong in your neighborhood. Sometimes there is no sign out front advertising that the home is going through foreclosure but it is obvious that there is no longer anyone living in the home.

Take the time to cut the grass until the bank sends out someone to do the landscaping. If the home looks maintained it can keep criminals from trying to break in. Being aware of what goes on in your neighborhood can help you to protect your family and your property against becoming a victim. Taking the time to pay attention to what goes on in your neighborhood will ultimately keep you and your family safer.

Neighborhood Watch News Volume 25 Issue 2-February, 2011