My Experience Investing in Columbus OH.

[Saleh Riazi]

Hello BP community, 

I thought to share a few of my experiences investing in Columbus Ohio. 

1. The Tax will increase immediately after you buy a property to match the purchase price and you are also responsible for the difference for the years that you didn't even own the property.

I purchased my first property back in Jun of 2020. It was a pretty beaten up Duplex in an area of the town that I was told it is a "C" neighborhood by a local RE agent. The tax on the property was less than $800 but I did my underwriting using the asking price which placed the tax at $1700. Immediately and in less than 3 months after closing I received a letter from BOR, Columbus Board of Revision which reassessed my taxes and increased it to match the purchase price. But that was not the issue until I learned that I am now responsible for the difference for the 2019 and part of 2020 that i didn't even own the property. I contacted a local attorney who is very knowledgeable about this and he helped me understand that this is a Columbus law.  

2. Cash out refi: When you cash out refi the property, the BOR will most likely increase the tax to match your appraised value. So make sure you calculate the tax using ARV and not the purchase price.

3. Make sure you do a through research on the neighborhood and don't just take any "RE Agent" word for it. Otherwise you will learn this a hard way that somebody's "C" neighborhood is really a  "F" neighborhood. 

4. Make sure to find a good property manager who manages your type of property before you purchase, or have enough cash to cover the consequences of it. 

I had my fair share of bad experiences with Columbus PMs and want to make sure every investors here find a good PM before starting your investing journey in Columbus. And yes I did interview them and asked them all the right questions. Just didn't do a reference check, maybe that is the key. 

Be well and don't overpay for a property just to own one my friends. 

[Brian Garlington]

It happens more often than you think Saleh. I was born in Columbus. I have some stuff out there and in Cleveland. When people reach out to me about investing out there the first thing I ask is when are you planing on flying out there for the first time. If the answer is, "Oh I already have a guy out there or boots on the gound out there so I won't need to" then it ends up being avery short conversation. I have family in Columbus and I still flew out there. 

Even though I was living in Oakland, California at the time this is what I did

I interviewed agents that had multiple listings of duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes because they are used to working with investors and they also know who the good PMs and contractors are. 

I also made sure that they themselves also owned rentals in the areas I was interested in. 

Finally, I flew out there multiple times and walked areas BEFORE buying.