President's Message

May 2008

Spring is Here
Welcome to spring in Central Oregon! (Central Oregon natives know that there is no such thing as spring - only winter and August.) If you haven’t already, it’s time to fire up our sprinkler systems and take those foundation vent plugs out. Pest control people tell me that bugs like it when we leave those plugs in, and we don’t like happy bugs, so go ahead and pull the vent plugs out and maybe the bugs will go live at the neighbor’s house.
Building continues to be slow and house prices are dropping, but from an investment view point they haven’t dropped near enough to start buying again. Rents remain low comparatively (regardless of what you read in the newspaper) so the best thing I can tell you is spruce up your existing units. By doing this you will improve your property’s value and your neighborhood, and your tenants will be impressed and maybe stay for a few more years. (You might even be able to raise the rents a little.)

COROA Website
We at COROA are pleased to announce the completion of our very own new website. You can find it at www.centraloregonrentalowners.org. Terry Flora Turner, COROA Board member and owner of High Desert Property Management, led the charge to get this website done. She found a company called Smart Solutions to design and service our website. Smart Solutions has a low cost program for non-profit organizations, so we were able to save some money. Smart Solutions has great ideas and is very easy to work with. So start watching the website for future COROA schedules and easier communication from our members to other members and also to the board of directors.

2008 Rental Survey Results
If you haven’t noticed already, included in this newsletter are the results of our annual rental survey. Study this survey and compare it to last year’s. The one thing I noticed is the number of units reported on is down by about a third. The COROA board of directors has already discussed how to increase this number next year. We on the board would love to see more in attendance at the annual dinner meeting when we announce the results of the survey. It’s a great networking time and just plain fun all-around.

See you next month!
Terry Luelling