Looking at buying my 1st REI property in Cleveland, Ohio

[Robert Reynolds]

Looking to buy a single family or small multi family income property in Cleveland, OH or the surrounding area. I live in Los Angeles and am looking for a local expert. I currently own a home but have never purchased an investment property. Any advice will be appreciated.

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Robert Reynolds:

Looking to buy a single family or small multi family income property in Cleveland, OH or the surrounding area. I live in Los Angeles and am looking for a local expert. I currently own a home but have never purchased an investment property. Any advice will be appreciated.

Hey Robert welcome to the site my man. Tons of folks are hitting Cleveland as it's fairly cheap. However it's pretty similar to most of the other flyover markets. You also can hit up Kansas City, Dayton, Toledo, Cincinnati, Birmingham, Memphis, Indianapolis, Detroit and more or less anything in the fly over states.

One thing to note when looking at the individual markets, you can make or loose money in any market. Don't think that one particular out of state market will shoot you to success or abject failure. It's not really that complicated to buy out of state. It only becomes complicated when investors try to over complicate or over think everything. Whenever you are buying a property out of state you should do a few things to ensure it's as smooth as possible.

• 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.
• Google Clayton Morris and/or Morris Invest for a cautionary tale of what not to do when buying turnkey real estate
• 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.

P.S.

That guide @Ben Halabi shared with you above is pretty solid. Many investors were very excited when I wrote it. I would appreciate it if Ben wouldn't continue to steal my Intellectual Property and try to pass it off as his own though...That's pretty lame dawg! Here is the original The Ultimate Guide to Grading Cleveland Neighborhoods. In addition you may be interested in the same type of guide that I've created in Birmingham, Alabama and Kansas City, Missouri.