Eric Steindler has been living and breathing the notion of community in Portland for about 15 years now.

Times have changed. No doubt Eric has changed. But the themes of community building, social responsibility, and dogs, have been relatively constant in Eric's life over the years.

These days, Eric Steindler is a Realtor. Actually, with ten years in the profession, he qualifies as a veteran real estate agent. He’s the (relatively) new guy at M Realty, and can be found online at www.ericsteindler.com, where a powerful and elegantly simple search engine, updated daily, makes it possible – and easy -- to search listings by neighborhood on your own, or you can sign up to have properties for sale in any area emailed to you daily.

Although Realtors can and do work wherever their services are needed, Eric specializes in selling older homes, plexes and small investment properties in Eastside Portland.

That’s not far, in distance or in spirit, from where he started in the late ‘90s with the City Repair Project, a dynamic non profit organization aimed at helping people create “… a more community-oriented and ecologically sustainable society,” words taken directly from the site at www.cityrepair.org. Eric's involvement with the City Repair Project goes back over 10 years, to the days prior to its status as a non-profit organization.

In his early days with The City Repair Project, Eric helped organize the second Hands Around Portland in 1998, and was one of the original coordinators of Portland’s several Earth Day celebrations starting in 2000.

Skill at organizing big projects is yet another repeating theme in his life. These days, Eric appears on the City Repair website as a donor, primarily because of his ability to throw the best Halloween party in town, seven years in succession, as a fundraiser for the non profit. HOWL raised about $12,000 for City Repair this year. The party must be experienced to be believed, and since tickets sell out early, it’s a good idea to bookmark the site and monitor the progress of next year’s event. That’s www.howlpdx.com, where organizer Eric Steindler is identified as Chief Mischief Maker, Portland Realtor, Tree-Loving Dog Hugger.

We shouldn’t forget the dogs. Eric got his start in business with a dog-walking service. Walking dogs not only paid the bills, it allowed Eric to buy three houses … he sold the business in 2000 when he started real estate career. Nowadays, Eric walks only one dog, a big shepherd/chow mix named Kodi.

The last few years have seen many changes in the world of real estate, and Eric is continually sharpening his real estate skills to stay ahead of all the changes. By the time this sees print he will be a Certified Short Sale and Foreclosure Specialist, trained in dealing with a new set of problems that are presenting themselves in home sales. As lending has tightened, Eric says he has also learned to be more creative in getting people into the property they want. Experience pays off: fourteen years as a real-estate investor, lots of classes and his training as a Realtor, give him a edge in moving property when financing is in short supply.

Nobody can predict the market at this point, Eric notes, but in the long run, people don’t lose with real estate. He’s still working to build community – one household at a time.

Eric Steindler lives in the Sunnyside neighborhood with his wife Joyce and two children. Spare moments are spent with Kodi in the Mt. Tabor dog park, giving away clothing with his Burning Man camp, The Black Rock Boutique, or doing yoga. For information and listings, visit Ericsteindler.com or phone 503-888-3111.