Investing in Cincinnati, OH

[Tavari Keel]

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to real estate investing, but will be ready to make my first purchase within the next few months - provided that I find a good deal. A good deal, to me, would be a multifamily (hopefully 3 to 4 units) with cashflow of $200 per unit or better (after applying the 50% rule I've been reading about). I plan on living in a unit and renting the others, and to that end, I do have a couple initial questions to start things off:

1. For those in the Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky area, is there a general preference on renting in either area? I assume there might be, due to factors such as property taxes or landlord laws or something, but I'm unsure.

2. Doing the math, I've found that based on my current income, I should be able to pay off a property costing $50,000 within two years. Do any current investors have opinions on whether it's worth it to focus on paying off a property rapidly like this as opposed to merely taking it slow and gradually building equity? What are the long-term consequences, if any (such as early payment penalties), of doing this?

In addition, I'd very much like to connect with investors, both seasoned and new, in the Cincinnati/NKY area to broaden my knowledge as well as to make connections for potential partnership deals in the future.

I hope I get a chance to meet like-minded people soon!