Rental Challenge! (Portland: apartment, rentals, insurance)

[Allieannarbor]

My husband and I are looking for a property with a lease starting in June. We have a laundry list of needs: fenced backyard, dog friendly for our one vizsla, garage or off-street parking, 3+ bedrooms, 2+ bathrooms, a second living space like a finished basement or den/media room, in a LARGE house at least 2200 square feet. We are only interested in being close-i, in SE Portland, near Hawthorne or in Eastmoreland, Sellwood, Brooklyn, Laurelhurst, Mt. Tabor.

Here is the real challenge, I am an Early Childhood Educator and we are looking for a house that would not only be our personal residence but also function as a property where we can run a certified family home child care. It would be a preschool program for preschool aged children--we need a space suitable for such a thing and landlords amenable to the idea.

Property management companies you like? Recommended search tactics? A property you know of? We scour craigslist constantly and have done the wanted ad thing as well, just trying to be proactive.

thanks for your time!

[davemess10]

A rental like that is easily going to be over $2k/month. As for the preschool program, I don't know if anyone would be cool with that or not. I'm assuming you would want to rent for multiple years, so that might work in your favor (willing to sign a longer lease).

I'm not familiar enough with house rental companies (have always used apartment companies, and now own a house).
You might be better off looking to buy (since it sounds like you know where you want to live anyway).

I guess I"m not much help, other than to say Good Luck, and that is a tall order, I hope you have a lot of cash

[Nell Plotts]

To operate a preschool or daycare in a residential area requires not only certification but also a zoning variance. That may also expose your landlord to risks s/he may not be willing to undertake.

[Allieannarbor]

A zoning variance is required for a commercial business serving more than 16 children, NOT for a certified home daycare program.

[mobilemindstationaryreality]

I'm definitely thinking that everything you want is going to cost you $2000 and up a month. Can you afford that?

[Hollytree]

I think commercial use of a rental house would invalidate the landlord's fire insurance on the property and thus cause all kinds of potential liability issues. My leases have a clause that specifies no use of the house other than as a domicile.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by Allieannarbor

A zoning variance is required for a commercial business serving more than 16 children, NOT for a certified home daycare program.

I'm going to defer to your research, given that you have a dog in the fight, and I don't. But that doesn't sound like the what the City of Portland's website says.

[Allieannarbor]

Actually, referring to your city link the second paragraph directs you to the Child Care Division and certified family programs, Oregon Employment Department - Child Care Division Certified Family Child Care Home (http://www.oregon.gov/EMPLOY/CCD/cert_fam.shtml - broken link) or if you continue to read the third paragraph states, "The rest of this document applies to businesses where there will be no residential use of the building," so yes if we intended only to provide care in a house we did not live in we would need to rezone it as commercial with a CUP (nightmare) and would never want to touch that due to the seismic standards alone (hellish nightmare).
Our search is for a property that is both for our personal residence and for an in-home program. We are talking home daycare, not center based, no one went to daycare as a child? The PDX community actually houses a great deal of these programs... busybeedaycare is an example of a house where they live and provide care (these programs seem to occur in an even split between rentals/private homes), many more can be found at UrbanMamas.

Redirecting. . . : )
Cost: yes we are looking between $2200-$2600 as a realistic budget.

From our discussions with various rental companies it seems properties available in June are not often listed until a month before? Sound right?

[davemess10]

BusyBee is only about 5 houses down from my house. If it matters at all, that is in a significantly cheaper area of town than where you mentioned looking. Though I think your budget will afford you to live in the most of the areas you mentioned.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by Allieannarbor

Actually, referring to your city link the second paragraph directs you to the Child Care Division and certified family programs, Oregon Employment Department - Child Care Division Certified Family Child Care Home (http://www.oregon.gov/EMPLOY/CCD/cert_fam.shtml - broken link) or if you continue to read the third paragraph states, "The rest of this document applies to businesses where there will be no residential use of the building," so yes if we intended only to provide care in a house we did not live in we would need to rezone it as commercial with a CUP (nightmare) and would never want to touch that due to the seismic standards alone (hellish nightmare).
Our search is for a property that is both for our personal residence and for an in-home program. We are talking home daycare, not center based, no one went to daycare as a child? The PDX community actually houses a great deal of these programs... busybeedaycare is an example of a house where they live and provide care (these programs seem to occur in an even split between rentals/private homes), many more can be found at UrbanMamas.

Redirecting. . . : )
Cost: yes we are looking between $2200-$2600 as a realistic budget.

From our discussions with various rental companies it seems properties available in June are not often listed until a month before? Sound right?

Criminy. I SAID I was deferring to your research. The state website has no bearing on local zoning, so it didn't really seem relevant.

And while there were long lists of things one must do to convert a home to a business, I don't really read that as "go ahead and put a business anywhere as long as you live there, too." But if that's the case, good luck finding someone willing to rent to you. I think it's going to be tough.