Julie Thompson, Scout Rentals’ founder and co-owner, held the title of President of her HOA for three years and also worked as a realtor and insurance agent before moving into the world of property management where she spent 12 years before she decided to take the leap and start her own company in 2019.

When Julie isn’t meeting with new clients/owners, overseeing employees and vendors, and doing the occasional property tour, she’s busy working behind the scenes to grow Scout into one of Portland’s premier property management companies.

Julie’s expertise doesn’t stop at property management, though. She has worked at Rejuvenation and volunteered at Architectural Heritage Center. She’s also a seamstress and fashion aficionado, especially when it comes to vintage apparel. Her love for vintage spills over into (no surprise) properties as well—she has a soft spot for classic homes built in the 1950s and 1960s. And if you know Julie at all, you won’t be surprised that she’s usually at the heart of social gatherings, bringing people together around food and drink.

Josh Runyon is Scout’s Property Management Assistant. You can think of them as Scout’s “Welcome Wagon.” They communicate with potential tenants, and assist with the entire tenant application and onboarding processes, all with their signature disarming, good-natured charm. Josh’s high-level people skills likely come from their varied work background in specialty retail and the hospitality and death care industries. 

When they’re not working for Scout, Josh loves crafting vegan foods from scratch, fermenting, and herbal medicine—committed to the perspective of making holistic wellness accessible to all people—as well as hiking and taking in live music and indie/foreign films.

As Scout’s Maintenance Manager, Emily Prosch keeps all maintenance tasks and projects on track and running smoothly. She communicates and coordinates with vendors, owner clients, and tenants to ensure all properties maintain their integrity. She also does inspections—semi-annual, move-in, and move-out—which might just be her favorite part of the job because she gets to meet all of Scout’s tenant fur buddies.

After living in Portland for a while were she worked as a liqueur designer and focused on photography and music (and put out a couple of solo records along the way), she migrated to New York for a year, then fled to Austin where she worked as a “principal” (code word for manager) at a schoolhouse-themed pub in Austin. By some, she’d be considered a cat whisperer, with three feline babies of her own… Uzi, Aria, and Elio.

Christy Hatcher is Scout’s bookkeeper and the owner of Money Tree Bookkeeping. She’s the go-to person for all things financial.

Basically… she just works a lot. 

Johnnie Mazzocco is responsible for crafting Scout’s client/owner, tenant, and realtor newsletters, as well as marketing copy for property listings. She  also writes and edits a wide variety of documents central to Scout’s business operations.

When not working with Scout, Johnnie is devoted to her writing practice. She is a retired college writing professor and a published fiction writer. She has also worked as a professional copywriter in the realms of travel, vacation rentals, and real estate, and currently teaches fiction writing and screenwriting to Adults in Custody at Columbia River Correctional Institution.

Joy Secrest works closely with Emily and handles maintenance scheduling for all of Scout’s properties, which requires the deftness and precision of a professional juggler. Between tenant requests, owner requests, and routine maintenance to keep Scout’s properties in top living/working order, Joy’s days are always full with phone calls and emails, and liaising between tenants, owners, and vendors.

Joy loves being a wife to her husband, Jeremy, and a mom to their three kiddos. She has a weakness for deal hunting and exploring small towns and back roads. She also enjoys reading, watching crime dramas, and spending time with her extended family. Her dream vacation would be to return to Croatia.