In Need of Cleveland Contractor Referrals

[Rebekah Bloom]

Hi everyone, I am new here to BP and have just made my first investment purchase in the North Collinwood area, close to Waterloo.
I live in Kansas City and I purchased this Cleveland SFR with a tenant in place, the numbers were great and they had been there almost 9 years. Two weeks after I made the purchase I was given notice that the renters were leaving at the end of the month. I have a feeling the seller was aware they were not renewing and decided to sell at that time. Clearly, I am disappointed but will take the time once they are out to fly up there and do some much needed repairs to the home before renting out again.
I am in desperate need of finding honest and fair electricians, plumbers, HVAC, exterior repair, painters, etc. 

I will also be adding another 2 or 3 properties to the Cleveland area and will most likely need a good property manager as well. 

Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

[Saleh Riazi]

Hello @Rebekah Bloom, I am sorry to hear about your trouble. Few points from my own experience in Cleveland so far. 

1. It is going to be almost impossible to find a property manager who cares about your property as much as you do, specially if you are just starting and don't have too many units with them, having said that I agree with @Robert Matelski, you defiantly need to have one specially when you are out of state investor. 

2. Depending on how much of rehab you are planning to do to the property some it might be a wise decision to go out there and spend sometime and take care of those rehabs yourself before handing it out to a PM. The reason is two fold,  one, some PMs don't accept a major rehab and two you will end up paying around %10+ on top of the cost of the contractors to the PM to managing the rehab for you. So if it will be a small few thousand $ rehab maybe its worth it to use a PM otherwise, it might make sense for you to be out there yourself and take care of this.

3. Keep in mind that right now because of the weather in OH, it might not be easy to get contractors to come out specially if you are planing to do anything to the outside of the property. Inside might be easier.

4. When I started looking for PM in Cleveland area, i put together a list of questions that I asked them, and since revised it. If you want message me and I will send it to you.

5. I also worked with couple of Contractors so, if you decide to do the work yourself, message me and I will share the contact with you.

Best of luck