Property manager: Rentals thriving

By Rolf Boone | The Olympian • Published June 25, 2008

OLYMPIA – A slower home-sales market and tighter lending standards have resulted in brisk business for Hometown Property Management, a business that manages more than 800 single-family rental houses in Thurston County. Co-owner Andrew Barkis says the business could manage more than 1,000 houses by next year.

Barkis, 40, was born and raised in Chehalis and is a graduate of Seattle University.

For most of its history, Hometown was based in Lacey. Needing a larger space, Barkis and co-owner Daniela Anderson this year bought and renovated the former Thurston County Chamber of Commerce building at 1600 Fourth Ave. E. in Olympia. The business has a staff of 20. Besides managing rental houses, Hometown manages homeowners associations, and it has a maintenance division, Barkis said.

Question: Why are there so many rental houses in Thurston County?

Answer: Thurston County is unique in the sense that we have our neighbor to the north, Fort Lewis. There is a larger transitory population that comes into this area, and the rental-home market is a huge part of that.

Fort Lewis provides some, but not all, of the housing needed for its soldiers, so they have to live off the post. Thurston County also is a growing area, and in the last couple years, the rental market has really grown.

Q: What current trends are you seeing in the rental-house business?

A: The rental-home market typically runs opposite of the home-sales market. If the sales market is really hot, the rental market is typically slower. The flip side is that when the sales market slows down and people can't buy, it forces more people into the rental market.

We're renting more homes because more soldiers are cycling through the area, and more are renting because mortgage requirements have tightened up. We're also averaging 10 to 15 phone calls a day and a majority of those calls start with, "I have a house that hasn't sold."

Q: How have rental prices recently changed?

A: They are trending upwards. We used to say the median rental price on a three-bedroom, two-bath house was about $1,000 or $1,100. That house today starts at about $1,300 to $1,500. I would anticipate that to continue over the next year and then level off.

Q: What makes a successful renter?

A: When you come in, a good renter will be able to meet credit, rental and income requirements with no evictions, and there is a criminal component.

Not everyone can meet every requirement, so we do allow people to co-sign on rental agreements or pay a double deposit that gives the homeowner a little more security. I tell young people it is so important to make smart credit decisions now so that it doesn't ruin their credit score.

Q: Do you do background checks on homeowners?

A: We don't take every home or work with every owner who steps through our door. The process is based on the marketability of the house and location. And we try to find out everything we can about the owner:

Are they in a stable financial position? Why are they leaving the area? Has the house not sold? Is it in risk of going into foreclosure?

We have had some issues where we have been bitten by that. If you come to us and you haven't made a mortgage payment in five months and you're trying to rent the house, it's a little late. If we feel there are certain things that aren't adding up, we won't take the property.

In this past year, we've had more people come to us and say they are in that early stage of foreclosure. These are people who got into way more house than they should have.

Rolf Boone covers business for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5403 or rboone@theolympian.com.