Advice for Cleveland Ohio

[Jason Weible]

I am going to start working on some turnkey properties in the Cleveland Area, Need to know the good zip codes to look in and the good neighborhoods. Any advice would be appreciated!

[Michael Azzam]

Originally posted by @Roger P.:

Being a south 'burb Cleveland local, I know the familiar rental spots that @James Wise has in the aforementioned map, and I think that is a great resource for sure!  In the early-mid 2000's, I had a lot of friends that moved to the Lakewood area for the close location to their jobs in downtown Cleveland, and the cheaper rents than downtown, not to mention Lakewood has more bars per capita than any city in Ohio.  Lakewood seems to keep the young and nearly established professional crowds coming in.  Lots of neat chefie-foodie type of restaurant upstarts there too.   ;0

I think the business model that James is sticking with on the "west side" of Cleveland is actually pretty smart.  He is from there, and his people would know the community and the people.  Ride that model til the wheels fall off.

For those not familiar with the personality and character of Cleveland, the city of Cleveland proper is split by the Cuyahoga River into the East and West sides.  It's not quite a full fledged rivalry to our generation, but for our parent's generation, it was... in a fun, anecdotal kind of way mostly.  That being said, in the 70's and 80's as families spread out from the city into the suburbs on either side of town, west-siders rarely made it over to the east side, and vis versa.  (As a nearly lifelong resident of North Royalton (south-west side burb), I can honestly say I haven't been to the east side since the Feast of the Assumption fair in August.  It's just one of those things, we have everything we need over here, and they have everything they need over there.  It's not personal, it's business!  :)

But, there are plenty of west side opportunities to go around, as I'm sure there are on the east side, but I'm sure James has his hands full with more than enough deals on the west alone.  Perhaps he will one day start an east-side chapter of HoltonWise, which of course, with the right management would excel I'm sure.

One thing I haven't researched or heard too much about is the opportunity for the Medina county area (next county south of Cuyahoga county).  I believe Medina county was the fastest growing county by population in Ohio in one or both of the decades between 1990 and 2010... I need to check that out and see if multi-family is worth looking into there.

Cheers

 I am a life long westsider (Parma Heights), however work, invest and sell in both the east & west side.  I believe there are lucrative investment opportunities on both sides of the town.  Personally, I own rental properties all over Cuyahoga County, as my approach is to maximize an opportunity when presented (no matter the location).  What I've discovered is that many realtors are only experienced to their specific location.  Finding an experienced realtor who works and understands the vast Cleveland market (east & west side) is the best approach to fully take advantage of the many opportunities presented in this area.