Ian Levin: Raised on Monopoly, Built for Real Estate

Childhood games of Monopoly for Ian Levin were no easy stroll around the Boardwalk.

Levin’s father, Nathan, was a longtime commercial broker and investor who used the iconic board game to teach his kids about real estate. And though these lessons paid dividends later in life, Ian remembers they were often delivered without mercy on the game board.

“My dad didn’t play Monopoly where you are super nice and let your kids win. He would be absolutely ruthless with us,” Ian said with a laugh. “But what I retained was the general lesson that long-term investment in real estate will pay off.”

Ian eventually joined his dad’s business and took over as the principal broker of Nathan Levin Co. in Salem after Nathan retired in 2018. Today, Ian likes to say he plays Monopoly for a living — except instead of passing “GO” and collecting $200, he’s helping clients make decisions to build generational wealth.

“Every investment carries risk. Investing in real estate is no different,” he said. “We’re trying to mitigate that risk as much as possible, and when you get it right, it’s an adrenaline rush, like winning a horse race. There’s some real energy behind it.”

‘The Yucky Side’

Initially, Ian said he had no interest in real estate. He began working for his dad as a teen, first on the landscaping crew and then on the maintenance crew in high school.

The job often wasn’t pretty and could sometimes veer into dangerous territory.

“I saw real estate from kind of the yucky side,” he said. “My dad did a lot of apartments back then. So consequently, I crawled through a lot of cat (feces) under apartment buildings. I saw stuff that most teenagers didn’t see, and I also saw a lot of distressed properties getting turned over, and some of the danger that’s involved in that.”

What Ian wanted at the time was to become a graphic designer. He earned his bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Colorado State University in 2003.

Along the way, Ian said he caught the real estate bug. About halfway through college, he bought his first house using money from a trust fund created by his grandmother, renting out rooms to other tenants. By the time he graduated, Ian told his parents he was thinking seriously about a career in real estate.

CCIM Designation

Today, Ian has effectively followed in his father’s footsteps. They purchased a multi-tenant office building on Southeast Commercial Street in 2007, where Ian now runs Nathan Levin Co. while also renting out space to several other local businesses.

A big part of his success, Ian said, has come from his involvement in the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Institute, earning his designation in 2019. Members are recognized as leading experts in commercial real estate, and the institute provides an array of tools and information that Ian said has given his business an edge.

“If you’re trying to win a listing, the preparation and education (from the Institute) definitely gives you a leg up,” he said.

In addition to his CCIM designation, Ian serves as the past president for the institute’s Oregon/Southwest Washington Chapter and was recently elected as Region 1 Vice President, covering Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. He will serve as First Vice President in 2027, then as Region Vice President in 2028.

Local Trends

Looking at local trends, Ian said there is continued demand for residential housing in Salem with a large amount of multi-family developments coming online. Downtown Salem has been transitioning from a retail sales core to more of a living and lifestyle services base, he said. Because of that, locals should expect more buildings to be torn down and replaced with apartments, condos, and mixed-use development.

On the industrial side, there is still a huge demand for industrial space, which he said indicates that “people who make things in our area are very busy.” He said growth of those businesses should be expected to continue, from metal fabrication to blanket manufacturing.

“I think long-term over the next several decades, we’ll see growth in the industrial market on those larger parcels if we continue to make them available as people look at being more efficient,” he said. “A lot of it is logistics engineering and big companies like Amazon doing the math and saying, ‘Oh, it’s way more efficient to do distribution along the West Coast.’”

Outside of work, Ian enjoys spending time with his wife, Laura, and two kids, 8-year-old Linnea and 5-year-old Mateo. They can often be found attending various youth sports events or on the ski slopes at Mount Bachelor and Mount Hood Meadows.