Multi's in Cleveland orrrrr?

[Olivia Beaucher]

Hey all, very excited to become a more active member on the community here, and excited to be making a first post. 

My husband and I are starting our our real estate investing ventures with our sights set on Multi-Family properties, and we will be investing Out Of State as we live in Colorado Springs and the market is insane here. 

We've been heavily considering Ohio, more specifically Cleveland, as our first place to dive in and buy a duplex. That said, we want to avoid tunnel vision, and want to put this out to the larger community to see what other locations you have had experiences in, and their pros/cons compared to a place like Cleveland. Here's my take on Cleveland so far: 

Pro's:

- Cashflowing Mutli family houses can be had for well under $100k, in "turnkey" condition (or close to it)

- Turnkey is important since we are OOS investors and it's our first time purchasing, so we aren't looking for a BRRRR just yet,

                but that will come later once we feel more confident.

- Many properties already have long term tenants placed in them

- Prop. Mgmt/Real Estate companies local to the area that specialize in investment properties 

- Rent to Avg Price ratio seems to be in our favor for many of the properties we've seen listed.

Cons:

- Relatively high taxes

- POS Requirements (I've seen properties with dozens of listed "POS" items that need to be fixed)

- Water bill is typically paid by landlord (although I've seen some on here talk about PM companies passing that bill to the tenants lately)

Given our criteria, is there anyone here that would recommend we scrap Cleveland as our entry point for RE Investing? If so, what other places would you recommend we look? Hopefully we've posted enough info above in order for solid insight from you all. Looking forward to your answers! 

[Don Petrasek]

To stay under $100k and be turnkey, you'll have to be looking in some of the most challenging areas to manage property in the area (pretty much city of Cleveland).  I don't typically recommend this as a starting point for new investors....its easy to get scared or frustrated if you run into issues immediately.  Once you have some experience it will be a lot easier to take things in stride and then you can look at that type of investment to diversify your portfolio.  You should consider adjusting your bar to under $200k as a starting point.  That will allow you to purchase a property that's more likely to be stable- and a better first experience.