Any experienced RE investors in Ohio?

[J W S]

Hi everyone! I'm planning to buy some multifamily properties to use for long-term rentals and have been researching places inside and outside of my home state (Texas) that could be worth investing in. Is there anyone that has any experience owning rental properties in Ohio? If so, how have you managed them (i.e. self managed with house-hacking or remote via a property management company), for how long? Have you achieved positive cash flow and how much? How strong is the rental market there in terms of finding and retaining tenants?

[Michael K Gallagher]

@J W S I currently invest here in Columbus on the East side in South of Main.  We have a Duplex that we house hack, and self manage, and have had 0 vacancy (*knocks on wooden desk*)for the first 2 years we've had it, and we had a tenant in there before our first mortgage payment was due.  

Columbus has been fantastic, as @Zeke Liston mentioned there is an insane amount of development and influx of both people and companies. In most of the numbers I've run, duplexes up to 4 units really seem to be the sweet spot for the city.  The prices of those types of buildings are still very reasonable, you can get conventional financing for them, and the mortgage and expenses are usually covered by half the units rent, so the rest of the units tend to be cash flow. I have not found too many single family properties in the burbs that will cashflow, I suspect its because the competition in the good school districts for single family is absolutely nuts at the moment, so you end up bidding against a family that wants there kids in the nice schools and will pay 20K-30K over asking.   

My agent @Rene Lanthron did a fantastic job finding us our investment property, and she actually used to be a property manager so she was a great resource in helping us set up our systems and documents.

Feel free to reach out!  I would be more than happy to give more specifics or talk numbers if you are interested.