Canton, OH or other surrounding areas in Ohio

[Jean Pierre]

I have a friend who just moved to Ohio and is assigning houses. He sends me a few houses and telling me that the homes are cheap as I can see and that the inventory is wide open. He is particularly telling me about Canton. Does anybody have any info to help?

[Tony R. Yagiela]

Jean - I have been investing in North Canton since 2007 with single family and multi family rentals and have seen great appreciation and high quality tenants.  Over the 5 units I have in North Canton, they average approximately 1 month of vacancy every 30 months.  North Canton is a great community with a great school system. 

The only problem with North Canton is that its hard to make the numbers work since the price per square foot is high (i.e. $125,000 for a 3 bed 1.5 bath 1250 sq. ft. which will rent for $1,250).  So you have to keep your eye open and be willing to put in some sweat equity to get a property at a discount and beat the 1% rule).

Canton City is much less per square foot and has (according to the school rating systems) a less quality school system.  Some neighborhoods in Canton are pretty bad, but some are consider 'C class'.  But what Ryan said above is true - Canton City has been seeing significant improvement over the last 2 years and there is much more coming.

Point being, Canton and North Canton are two entirely different communities.  If you want to buy in Canton (which I am looking into as well since the numbers work so well), make sure you stick to the Plain Local School District (i.e. Glen Oak).  I would avoid anything inner city as of right now.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about a house you found or a location.

Good luck!

Tony