Buying a rental property in Cleveland Ohio

[Jason Haddad]

I’m flying into Cleveland May 27th to purchase my first rental property. Im from Canada. 

I’m looking for a wholesale deal on a fixer upper home in a decent area. I’ll then be renting the property and moving on to the next purchase. Can anyone recommend or help me out with a trust worthy wholesaler in the Cleveland area? 

I’d also need a great priorty management company that can look after my properties and of course trust worthy contractors. 

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Jason Haddad:

I’m flying into Cleveland May 27th to purchase my first rental property. Im from Canada. 

I’m looking for a wholesale deal on a fixer upper home in a decent area. I’ll then be renting the property and moving on to the next purchase. Can anyone recommend or help me out with a trust worthy wholesaler in the Cleveland area? 

I’d also need a great priorty management company that can look after my properties and of course trust worthy contractors. 

 Reading The Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods is a must read for out of state & out of country investors. Lots of variations in quality and safety of the neighborhoods here in Cleveland. On top of that take a look at some bullet point best practices that all new out of state & out of country investors should follow when building their portfolio.

• Don't buy in the roughest neighborhood in the urban core. Pick a solid B-Class suburban area. Perhaps a nice 1950's built bungalow.
• Always hire a 3rd party property inspector to give you an unbiased feel for the home. The reports are 40-90 pages long and go through the entire house in great detail.
• Get an appraisal. If your using financing the bank requires this. This is good. The bank isn't going to let you blow their money. They have more skin in the game then you do.
• Make sure you get clear title. If using a lender this is a non issue. They will make you do this. It's those maniacs that buy homes cash via quit claim deed off of craigslist that really get screwed.
• Make sure your property manager is a licensed real estate brokerage.
• Understand you can not eliminate all risk, only mitigate it. If you are risk adverse real estate, (especially out of state) is not for you.