HOAs Uncovered – What Every Portland Homebuyer Needs to Know Before Signing

HOAs: Helpful protectors of your property… or nightmare fuel wrapped in bureaucracy? Before you fall in love with that dream home or condo, you need to hear this.

Episode Summary:

HOAs can be a blessing—or a budget-busting surprise. In this eye-opening episode, Joe and Makayla dig into everything you really need to know about Homeowners Associations before buying a home or condo. From special assessments and reserve studies to those mysterious “nasty grams,” they unpack the red flags and reveal how to protect your investment.

They also share a true story about uncovering a buried land-lease clause just in time to save a client from a major financial mess. Whether you're buying your first condo or just curious about those monthly HOA dues, you’ll walk away smarter, savvier, and ready to take control. For more tips, don’t miss the companion blog post on navigating HOAs in Portland Metro—linked below!

Episode Highlights:

00:02 – What is an HOA, really? Joe and Makayla break down the basics in plain language.
00:10 – Love/Hate relationships with HOAs – Joe shares why he adores the lawn care but loathes the warning letters.
00:23 – Special assessments explained – $50K condo surprises, leaky buildings, and HOA drama from the trenches.
00:35 – The secret power of meeting minutes – Why you should always read them (or at least scan for red flags).
00:49 – True story: Makayla catches a buried land-lease clause that could’ve cost her client big.
00:56 – Tips for reviewing docs like a pro – What to skim, what to study, and how to negotiate hidden costs.
01:03 – AI vs. human eyes – Can ChatGPT really help with HOA docs? Joe and Makayla weigh in.

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• LivPortland Blog: How to Navigate HOAs When Buying a Home or Condo in Portland Metro
• LivPortland Grub Guide – YouTube Playlist
• LivPortland.com – Search listings, learn about neighborhoods, and meet the LivPortland team

 Found this episode helpful? Subscribe to the show for more real estate insights, neighborhood tips, and behind-the-scenes market advice! And if you loved it, leave us a review—your support helps us keep it real. Visit LivPortland.com to connect with our team or explore homes in your dream neighborhood. 

Thank you for listening to this episode. Stay up to date on the latest trends and insights by subscribing to our podcast and following us on social media.

For more information about buying or selling in the Portland Metro real estate market, please visit www.LivPortland.com or contact us directly.

We appreciate your feedback, so please leave a review and let us know what topics you would like to hear more about.

Transcript

00;00;08;21 - 00;00;26;03

Joe Reitzug

Welcome to Off the Record talking real estate with Joe and Makayla. If you're interested in the Portland, Oregon real estate market and want the unvarnished inside scoop, you've come to the right place. Thanks for giving us a listen. Okay. Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Hello, Makayla.

00;00;26;04 - 00;00;27;26

Makayla Mast

Hi. How are you?

00;00;27;28 - 00;00;59;20

Joe Reitzug

I'm fantastic. We just shot another episode of our LivPortland Grub Guide, which, if you haven't checked it out, go to our website, live Pearl income, where you can go to our YouTube channel and we'll have it there. But we are going around Portland and Hillsboro, all around the city, around town, doing little reviews on, on food trucks and the communities around them, and, you know, food communities, homes, it all kind of meshes into one for, so we thought we'd jump into that.

00;00;59;20 - 00;01;05;06

Joe Reitzug

And we just got back from shooting our second episode of that, and I'm starved.

00;01;05;08 - 00;01;19;00

Makayla Mast

I am too. It was fun. We did, Burger Place. You'll have to go to our website or to YouTube to check out which burger place. Yeah. And then we just posted our first episode which was Oregon Fish Co

00;01;19;02 - 00;01;22;09

Joe Reitzug

Which was fantastic. They treated us so well.

00;01;22;10 - 00;01;29;28

Makayla Mast

They did. That was a fun little review. So yeah look out for those. We're going to hopefully do to a month.

00;01;30;01 - 00;01;31;03

Joe Reitzug

2 or 3 I think. Right.

00;01;31;04 - 00;01;33;10

Makayla Mast

Yeah. Yeah. But it's so far.

00;01;33;12 - 00;01;37;08

Joe Reitzug

Don't do the grub guide before doing the podcast.

00;01;37;10 - 00;01;39;13

Makayla Mast

Yeah. Because I am a little slow.

00;01;39;14 - 00;01;41;27

Joe Reitzug

I am on Nap central right now.

00;01;41;29 - 00;01;48;23

Makayla Mast

Me too. I'm pretty sure I almost broke every single piece of podcast equipment trying to set this up.

00;01;48;25 - 00;01;57;07

Joe Reitzug

So you really struggling? Really struggling. So are you. And I put together now the intro stuff together.

00;01;57;10 - 00;01;58;05

Makayla Mast

We'll find out.

00;01;58;08 - 00;02;23;12

Joe Reitzug

Okay, good, good good good. Yeah. So we've had an eventful day, but we have a fantastic topic. And this was a topic that was suggested by a friend of the podcast, Miss Kelsey Stats, who is a good friend of ours. She wanted us to do a podcast on how to navigate Hoa's when buying a home or condo. What you need to know and why it's so important.

00;02;23;15 - 00;02;42;27

Joe Reitzug

And you know, everyone thinks of HOA fees around mostly condos, but there's a lot of HOA fees for neighborhoods, and there's a lot you need to know when you're looking to buy a house or buy a condo that you might be surprised about. So we're excited to jump into that and, help you guys understand that and figure out how to navigate that in your next purchase.

00;02;42;29 - 00;02;52;29

Makayla Mast

Yeah, a lot of due diligence there. When I first wrote this, it was a little dense. So we can just hit the main points and yeah. Can we digestible to you. But let us know if you have questions.

00;02;53;00 - 00;03;04;28

Joe Reitzug

HOA in general some people love them, some people hate them and some people both, myself included, I very skewed. Yeah. This kid, I both love him and hate them.

00;03;05;00 - 00;03;05;16

Makayla Mast

Me too.

00;03;05;19 - 00;03;07;25

Joe Reitzug

Depending on the day of the week. Quite frankly.

00;03;07;26 - 00;03;32;24

Makayla Mast

Right. Or the some HOA as you just know they're going to be a mess walking into it. Yeah. With neighborhoods it feels less important. Sometimes it depends on what the HOA covers, right? So if it's just covering like maintenance around, you know, like lawn care here and there or, or if it's there to like, oh, we see a lot where they have a in gated communities.

00;03;32;24 - 00;03;58;08

Makayla Mast

Like they just covers the maintenance of the front gate. Yeah. That's not too big of a deal. But you know, the ones in condo or townhome buildings, they're managing a lot for you. Exterior maintenance, they're paying your sewer trash and water most likely. So there's a lot of variables there. And what I think people get scared of is those special assessments that can creep up.

00;03;58;09 - 00;04;10;03

Makayla Mast

Yeah, in a condo building, which we'll get into. But there is definitely a distinction between a homeowner, you know, a single family home, neighborhood and building HOA. So we definitely want to make sure we remind people that.

00;04;10;10 - 00;04;12;10

Joe Reitzug

Did you know that I have an HOA in my neighborhood?

00;04;12;13 - 00;04;15;24

Makayla Mast

I did because your neighborhood is beautiful.

00;04;15;27 - 00;04;22;25

Joe Reitzug

I, I'm going to just right up front, tell folks why I love it and also why I hate it.

00;04;22;25 - 00;04;23;20

Makayla Mast

Okay. Whoops. Go.

00;04;23;24 - 00;04;48;03

Joe Reitzug

I love it because it includes the front yard lawn care. And they they mow the lawn. They trim the lawn. They see it. They also take care of the bushes in front of the house and trim those back right. Yeah. Plant replant and the trees, the tree care, all of that stuff. And it just keeps the neighborhood looking just really, really tight across the board.

00;04;48;03 - 00;04;50;13

Joe Reitzug

Every single one of the homes looks great.

00;04;50;13 - 00;04;55;23

Makayla Mast

It does. It's very uniform. Yeah. Why do you hate it here.

00;04;55;25 - 00;05;18;18

Joe Reitzug

Well I hate it because they send you a little nasty gram saying yeah it looks like your home needs to be painted or, you know, your rough is maybe nearing the end of its useful life. We haven't got that one. We got the it needs painting and we're like, we're on it, we're getting there. Give us a minute.

00;05;18;21 - 00;05;30;05

Joe Reitzug

So we didn't end up getting that done. You know some of the other ones are. There's too many wine bottles in your recycling. Stop now I'm teasing on that one.

00;05;30;08 - 00;05;51;09

Makayla Mast

You would definitely lose at. Thought I was certain. Gosh. Oh, my gosh, that's so funny. So is your HOA governed by a homeowner who was in the neighborhood or is it governed by a management company? Management company? Okay. So my question is who's going around the driveway in the neighborhood taking notes on, oh.

00;05;51;12 - 00;05;54;17

Joe Reitzug

They've got police. The HOA police are out there okay.

00;05;54;20 - 00;05;55;13

Makayla Mast

Yeah okay.

00;05;55;14 - 00;06;05;09

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Yeah I think they do. Orderly and they do it like quarterly okay. And honestly they're very nice and they're great. They just, you know sometimes they're like.

00;06;05;16 - 00;06;06;07

Makayla Mast

00;06;06;10 - 00;06;21;24

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Don't come for me. People. Sometimes they're just a little aggressive with some of that stuff. But it's great. They organize garage sales for us twice a year. We haven't done that since. When? An incident. It's a long story, but okay.

00;06;21;26 - 00;06;23;00

Makayla Mast

Maybe we'll save it for the end.

00;06;23;00 - 00;06;40;28

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, we'll save it for the end. But all those type of things. So I mean, that's kind of my love hate relationship with our HOA. And I'm sure a lot of other people can talk about it and feel that pain. But let's talk about the basic maybe some people out there don't know what a homeowner's association really is.

00;06;41;01 - 00;06;43;19

Joe Reitzug

It's an association.

00;06;43;22 - 00;06;44;28

Makayla Mast

It's

00;06;45;00 - 00;07;08;16

Joe Reitzug

I see Makayla mentioned when I put her on the spot. So essentially homeowners association that cares for either the building or the neighborhood and has certain duties and responsibilities. You pay a certain amount every month or year or quarter or whatever into the kitty to make sure that there's funds to get that done. So that's the basics of it.

00;07;08;20 - 00;07;21;23

Makayla Mast

Okay, perfect. Sounding like a Wikipedia description. That was great. Nailed, right? Good job. So now that we've gotten past that, hopefully now everyone has an understanding of what change.

00;07;21;25 - 00;07;22;14

Joe Reitzug

Hurdle.

00;07;22;16 - 00;07;46;22

Makayla Mast

Is. Yeah, we get into the stuff that it's very important to pay attention to when you're considering purchasing a home that might be in an HOA. So right off the bat, if you have identified that you would like to make an offer on said property and that properties in an HOA, we start doing a lot of back end due diligence for you, or as much as we can possibly do while putting that offer together.

00;07;46;22 - 00;08;19;11

Makayla Mast

So we're going to figure out who the heck runs. You know, the HOA. Is it a management company? Is it a homeowner within the neighborhood? What documents can we find right now? And are there any pending or current special assessments? And that one specifically is for buildings. And then the other thing we look for is if the HOA has transfer fees, because when we're putting together an offer for you, we may want to negotiate the seller paying for those transfer fees or paying off a pending litigation.

00;08;19;16 - 00;08;20;07

Joe Reitzug

Right.

00;08;20;10 - 00;08;23;21

Makayla Mast

Do you want to talk about what I like? A special assessment is really quickly.

00;08;23;22 - 00;08;47;16

Joe Reitzug

Typically special assessments are for condos, but they can be for single family dwelling neighborhoods as well. But condos, townhouse, townhouse buildings, those type of things, a lot of the ones that we see are like for siding or plumbing or like there's a building that a client of mine was looking at out on the Oregon coast. It was an older building.

00;08;47;16 - 00;09;21;18

Joe Reitzug

It was built in the, I want to say the 50s, but it's a prime location right on the beach. It's fantastic, but it's older. He wanted to make an offer. I said, yeah, that sounds good. Let me make a call and just ask as some preliminary questions. I call the listing broker. He let me know that there was an assessment that was being voted on, and the assessment was for redoing the envelope of the building, which is a big one, the siding, it was the Oregon coast of the siding had really it was good at one point.

00;09;21;20 - 00;09;55;14

Joe Reitzug

But the Oregon coast is unfair giving and over time, decades. It had just gotten worn to the point where it was not keeping moisture out from inside the siding. So there was some rot, different things going on. So all the siding would have to be taken off. And the, the envelope, you know, the, the barrier between the siding and the structure would have to be ripped off any, any dry rot or any issues that were found after that would have to be taken care of.

00;09;55;16 - 00;10;00;24

Joe Reitzug

Then they put a new envelope on it, resided, you know, we're talking doors. Yeah.

00;10;00;25 - 00;10;03;02

Makayla Mast

I mean, all of it so extensive.

00;10;03;05 - 00;10;10;08

Joe Reitzug

And to the tune of I mean, this is a $500,000, condo.

00;10;10;10 - 00;10;10;22

Makayla Mast

Okay.

00;10;10;28 - 00;10;15;09

Joe Reitzug

And the assessment was going to be for $50,000.

00;10;15;09 - 00;10;16;18

Makayla Mast

Oh, wow. Per unit.

00;10;16;22 - 00;10;17;12

Joe Reitzug

Per unit.

00;10;17;12 - 00;10;17;28

Makayla Mast

Wow.

00;10;18;03 - 00;10;23;26

Joe Reitzug

With probably about 12 to 15 months of no one being able to be in the building.

00;10;23;26 - 00;10;24;28

Makayla Mast

Oh, no.

00;10;25;00 - 00;10;25;26

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;10;25;28 - 00;10;29;06

Makayla Mast

They're never going to be able to sell that place.

00;10;29;09 - 00;10;37;06

Joe Reitzug

We made an offer. It was not accepted. They thought it was too low. But my boy, you know, my client built in the assessment cost you.

00;10;37;06 - 00;10;37;21

Makayla Mast

Know.

00;10;37;21 - 00;10;40;03

Joe Reitzug

And loss of rental income.

00;10;40;03 - 00;10;40;15

Makayla Mast

Yeah.

00;10;40;22 - 00;10;46;05

Joe Reitzug

You still got to pay your property taxes and you still got to pay your HOA fees. Wow.

00;10;46;05 - 00;10;47;05

Makayla Mast

That's great.

00;10;47;07 - 00;10;55;16

Joe Reitzug

So I mean, it was I thought it was a good offer. They just sounds like they just want to hold on to it though, and see what the values at after all of this.

00;10;55;20 - 00;10;56;21

Makayla Mast

That's fair.

00;10;56;23 - 00;11;12;18

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So, you know, no harm done. But those are the type of things other assessments we see. There was a building here in the Pearl a couple of years ago that had, a good portion of its plumbing. There were these, valves in the plumbing that were faulty.

00;11;12;19 - 00;11;13;12

Makayla Mast

No. Awesome.

00;11;13;12 - 00;11;21;02

Joe Reitzug

And within three years of the building being completed, these valves started failing. And so. Yeah.

00;11;21;04 - 00;11;23;16

Makayla Mast

Yeah. So so.

00;11;23;16 - 00;11;43;01

Joe Reitzug

You know, these were 6 to $800,000 per unit. And the assessments on those were 40 to $60,000, depending on the size. Yeah. You imagine that. No buying a new $800,000 condo in the Pearl and then having a $60,000 assessment.

00;11;43;03 - 00;11;44;17

Makayla Mast

It makes my stomach hurt.

00;11;44;18 - 00;11;55;27

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. And the assessments can be done over time, right? That's key. There's financing you can have. There's a lot of different things. So it's not like they're saying, hey, I need 60 grand next.

00;11;55;27 - 00;12;26;29

Makayla Mast

Week, right? There's a lot of options, but still, you know, it's going to be increasing the amount you spend per month on the place. Yeah. So that's something you want to be aware of. And a lot of times people pay these off over several years. So if, you know, maybe they've been paying it off for five years and you're offering on a place in that scenario and it might still have a balance, well, then the seller can pay off the rest of that balance at closing, because they likely are going to have proceeds from the sale that can cover that hopefully, hopefully.

00;12;26;29 - 00;12;29;14

Makayla Mast

But it's something we want to negotiate if we can.

00;12;29;16 - 00;12;54;07

Joe Reitzug

So let's talk about the contingency that's in the sales agreement. So if the property you're purchasing, whether it be a condo or a home in a neighborhood or whatever, your broker will have a document that says, hey, this is part of a, a planned community that has an HOA. We are requesting for all of the meeting minutes, budget items.

00;12;54;07 - 00;12;57;25

Joe Reitzug

There's about, what, 12 or 14 different.

00;12;57;28 - 00;12;58;27

Makayla Mast

Yeah. So, you know.

00;12;59;04 - 00;13;05;17

Joe Reitzug

16 hours, all those type of things that we ask for. And the one I love reading is the meeting minutes.

00;13;05;17 - 00;13;07;23

Makayla Mast

Oh, that is good stuff sometimes.

00;13;07;23 - 00;13;08;01

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;13;08;02 - 00;13;09;19

Makayla Mast

Better than reality TV.

00;13;09;21 - 00;13;35;23

Joe Reitzug

A lot of times it is very, very entertaining. But we ask for all those things and they have, you know, usually between 3 to 5 days to deliver those docs. And then upon delivery, you as a buyer would have seven business days to review those and get back to them with any issues you may have or you if you know, you find out that something is drastically wrong, which I think you're going to tell us a story.

00;13;35;23 - 00;13;49;24

Joe Reitzug

Hearing a little bit about one scenario that yes, you happen to catch because you read through it very carefully and found something that was like, whoa, this is big. Yeah. It was. You can terminate the transaction because of that. Nothing. Yeah. I think your client did that, didn't they?

00;13;49;24 - 00;14;11;27

Makayla Mast

Yeah. A lot of people find comfort in this contingency because it's separate from the inspection contingency. And there is a lot to read through. And if you aren't familiar with reading through these documents, it can feel like really daunting I think. So, yeah, we always read them, but not all brokers do. So just be aware. Once you receive those documents, read them.

00;14;11;27 - 00;14;33;26

Makayla Mast

If you can. At the very least scan them. I would scan like the financials at the very least and then the recent meeting minutes. But yeah, yeah, we had a situation a couple of years ago. I was representing a client buying a condo in Southeast Portland, and it was, I think it was like 275,000. Cute corner ground level condo.

00;14;33;28 - 00;14;57;21

Makayla Mast

And this was a client had we've been looking for 7 or 8 months, we finally got under contract and I caught something weird on the docks. And so I looked further into it and this wasn't presented in the listing, even though the seller was very well aware of the fact that in five years, the land under the condo building was going to be for sale.

00;14;57;28 - 00;15;03;10

Makayla Mast

So many years ago, when they built the building, they had leased the land instead of purchasing it.

00;15;03;11 - 00;15;04;15

Joe Reitzug

Like a 50 year lease.

00;15;04;15 - 00;15;10;10

Makayla Mast

Yeah. So that was coming to an end. So the homeowners were either going to have to come together and buy the land.

00;15;10;10 - 00;15;11;08

Joe Reitzug

Not buy or.

00;15;11;08 - 00;15;12;00

Makayla Mast

For nice.

00;15;12;06 - 00;15;12;18

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00;15;12;18 - 00;15;27;24

Makayla Mast

So that was I mean, I'm glad we caught it. And then they ended up backing out and we found, something else, but it was just crazy, like the, our escrow officer that I was working with. She'd never heard of anything like that before. Our lender didn't either. So.

00;15;27;27 - 00;15;51;28

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. So that that's a big one. You know, corners the bylaws of how the HOA is governed. You know, budget and financials is a big one. You want to know, especially if you're in a condo building, what kind of reserves the condo has, what type of cash on hand they have, what's their cash flow. You don't want to buy something where the management is in a bad way financially.

00;15;52;03 - 00;16;15;13

Joe Reitzug

That's not where you want to be because you, as the owner and the rest of the owners will be held accountable for all of that. So that's that's a tough one. You know, that there's the reserve study of the long term maintenance and the planning that goes into it, you know, and that goes back to the, you know, the different things that come up, the assessments and all those type of things.

00;16;15;13 - 00;16;37;02

Joe Reitzug

But you want to look at the meeting minutes, see what the drama is in the neighborhood or in the building. It can be very entertaining. Plus, are there any lawsuits or major repairs or even if it's not an assessment, you'll want to know. Oh, hey, they're replacing all the windows. And when they get to my side of the building, I'm going to need to vacate for a month or something like that.

00;16;37;03 - 00;16;38;29

Makayla Mast

Right. All things we want to know.

00;16;39;03 - 00;16;45;28

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Making it sound really scary right now.

00;16;46;00 - 00;16;47;11

Makayla Mast

Good things to know.

00;16;47;11 - 00;16;51;16

Joe Reitzug

But these are good things to know. Know what? You're getting into 90%.

00;16;51;18 - 00;17;00;13

Makayla Mast

Let's knock on wood because I'm reviewing HOA docs tomorrow. Let's say 75% of the time they tour docs are flawless and nothing to worry about.

00;17;00;19 - 00;17;09;08

Joe Reitzug

And the reserve is the reserve. Study is great and the financials are good. The budget looks good, right? You know the insurance summary, all of that looks good.

00;17;09;12 - 00;17;12;20

Makayla Mast

But sometimes it's not. And this is why we have this contingency.

00;17;12;26 - 00;17;24;17

Joe Reitzug

That's right. That's right. So tips for reviewing HOA docs. We mentioned that the meeting minutes can be kind of entertaining. That's about it because the rest of it's pretty dry.

00;17;24;21 - 00;17;30;14

Makayla Mast

Joel imitating the meeting minutes. It's pretty hysterical.

00;17;30;16 - 00;17;32;29

Joe Reitzug

Am I going to imitate the meeting minutes right now?

00;17;33;02 - 00;17;37;05

Makayla Mast

We know I have a need for you too, but hey, you always make the voices.

00;17;37;08 - 00;18;03;17

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, whenever. Whenever Makayla and I come across something that is entertaining, we always kind of do a back and forth and then the president said, we shall not speak of these things now and then. You know, homeowner A it said, of course we well, why don't you ever want to talk about this? But the rest of it can be pretty dry.

00;18;03;19 - 00;18;14;25

Joe Reitzug

Right. But it's important information. So make sure you either reveal yourself and we highly recommend that. Or make sure that your broker has reviewed it and has given you a summary of what their thoughts are on it.

00;18;14;27 - 00;18;17;18

Makayla Mast

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

00;18;17;21 - 00;18;19;07

Joe Reitzug

ChatGPT is another good one.

00;18;19;10 - 00;18;29;05

Makayla Mast

It is. So you can just drop a document into ChatGPT and ask it to summarize it for you. That's a great way for, you know, things to be broken down.

00;18;29;08 - 00;18;35;23

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. You can actually ask ChatGPT, you know, what do you see in here? That may be an issue for a possible perjury.

00;18;35;26 - 00;18;37;01

Makayla Mast

Perjury. Right.

00;18;37;03 - 00;18;37;26

Joe Reitzug

Which is scary.

00;18;37;26 - 00;18;40;25

Makayla Mast

That is scary. But hey, use it to your advantage.

00;18;40;28 - 00;18;45;25

Joe Reitzug

I still I'm old school. I just I want to see it with my own eyes.

00;18;45;25 - 00;18;46;27

Makayla Mast

Oh, yeah. Me too.

00;18;46;28 - 00;18;50;06

Joe Reitzug

I don't trust AI to tell me what's good and whatnot isn't good.

00;18;50;07 - 00;18;55;07

Makayla Mast

Well, I trust AI with a lot, honestly, but not with something like this.

00;18;55;09 - 00;18;57;07

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, and I hear you.

00;18;57;09 - 00;19;20;16

Makayla Mast

The neighborhood I grew up in, it was a homeowner governed HOA. And there is this woman, our neighbor. She was such a nutjob. And so any time we talk about HOA, she is all I can think of. Oh, wow. Her name was Benita and she was five feet tall and had, like, crazy hairdo. We're pretty sure she killed her husband, right?

00;19;20;16 - 00;19;20;29

Joe Reitzug

Sure.

00;19;21;05 - 00;19;21;22

Makayla Mast

And pretty.

00;19;21;22 - 00;19;22;06

Joe Reitzug

Standard.

00;19;22;11 - 00;19;35;03

Makayla Mast

She was always just screaming like running, chasing people down. She. If our garage was, like, half open, she would, like, come underneath it, knock on our inside garage door. Benita, she was nuts. So I.

00;19;35;03 - 00;19;36;10

Joe Reitzug

Have sounds like a.

00;19;36;12 - 00;19;37;02

Makayla Mast

Afraid of.

00;19;37;02 - 00;19;38;12

Joe Reitzug

Dateline episode.

00;19;38;15 - 00;19;43;29

Makayla Mast

It should be one. She's actually in the news, but that's a story for another time.

00;19;44;01 - 00;19;47;12

Joe Reitzug

Man, that was one spicy neighborhood you lived in.

00;19;47;12 - 00;19;49;18

Makayla Mast

Yeah, I was, yeah, there's a lot.

00;19;49;20 - 00;19;52;06

Joe Reitzug

Throw your craziness in there. That had been something.

00;19;52;07 - 00;19;54;05

Makayla Mast

Oh yeah. Crazy ten year old.

00;19;54;08 - 00;19;56;05

Joe Reitzug

Four kids racing around.

00;19;56;11 - 00;19;57;13

Makayla Mast

Just wild.

00;19;57;13 - 00;20;03;13

Joe Reitzug

Cheese. So, give me your your closing thoughts on this. Mac. We need to wrap this thing up for people.

00;20;03;16 - 00;20;35;10

Makayla Mast

Sure. A choice can be great or not great, but make your own opinion about them. Like, we understand this. You have negative stories, or experiences. But I think with the right due diligence, they can be just fine. And, you know, 99% of the time not have to worry about them once you're in it. So try to go in with an open mind, but take your time to read through the docs and make sure you're you have representation that's advocating you for you through this process.

00;20;35;16 - 00;20;36;18

Makayla Mast

Yeah. So you can start.

00;20;36;18 - 00;20;59;28

Joe Reitzug

Taking your time to read through it, too. Don't rush through it. Read through them, and, you know, make some notes about what you maybe don't understand or have questions about or like, is this bad? You know what's going on here? It's one of those things where it's a double edged sword. It can be great. There's really a lot of pluses about it, but you want to know what the negatives are and whether you can handle those or not.

00;21;00;02 - 00;21;03;05

Makayla Mast

Yeah, absolutely. So well said.

00;21;03;08 - 00;21;10;10

Joe Reitzug

Be informed, be strategic. You wrote that down in the notes. I thought that was really good. Thanks. Yeah.

00;21;10;13 - 00;21;14;09

Makayla Mast

For me a big brain. Yeah okay.

00;21;14;11 - 00;21;22;26

Joe Reitzug

Okay people. Our promise to you moving forward is no podcast after the Grub Guide because this was just a little bit loopy.

00;21;22;26 - 00;21;25;02

Makayla Mast

Well, I think there used to only be.

00;21;25;04 - 00;21;27;09

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, we offer up a lot of loopy on this board.

00;21;27;09 - 00;21;27;27

Makayla Mast

Sure do.

00;21;28;02 - 00;21;39;13

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. But we appreciate you guys. Thanks so much for listening. You can catch us on LivPortland.com. That's LivPortland.com and also our YouTube channel or what else the Grub Guide. Where can you find the Grub.

00;21;39;13 - 00;21;43;19

Makayla Mast

Guide YouTube YouTube a playlist on our YouTube.

00;21;43;19 - 00;22;02;24

Joe Reitzug

It's a lot of fun. And, you know, people ask, well, why are you doing that? Well, for us, food and community kind of rolls all into one. And where you live and the areas you might be interested in, you know, food and community matter. And that's why we're trying to address this, that. And we just like to eat.

00;22;02;25 - 00;22;04;02

Makayla Mast

I'm sure do.

00;22;04;09 - 00;22;08;18

Joe Reitzug

I had a, Smashburger double Smashburger with bacon today.

00;22;08;21 - 00;22;09;18

Makayla Mast

Just so.

00;22;09;18 - 00;22;10;16

Joe Reitzug

Good. That was.

00;22;10;16 - 00;22;13;06

Makayla Mast

Phenomenal. And I had a fried chicken sandwich.

00;22;13;08 - 00;22;22;12

Joe Reitzug

We're going to do sushi. Rita is next week. Burrito style sushi. Sushi. And it is phenomenal, people. I can't wait to have that.

00;22;22;16 - 00;22;24;03

Makayla Mast

Can't wait to tune in.

00;22;24;06 - 00;22;32;01

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, my, when my boys hear about this there there's going to be multiple orders for sushi burritos. Yeah. Okay, folks.

00;22;32;04 - 00;22;33;00

Makayla Mast

Thanks for listening.

00;22;33;01 - 00;22;34;25

Joe Reitzug

Thanks, guys. Take care.

00;22;34;27 - 00;34;44;28

Joe Reitzug

Thanks for joining us today. If you're interested in finding out more about Joe, myself or the LivPortland team, you can go to LivPortland.com. Thanks for giving us a listen and see you next time on the Off the Record podcast.