All Forum Posts by: Adam Walter

@Tony Gorokhovsky  I've been investing in Dayton Oh for the past year for buy and holds.  Prior to that it was primarily Cincinnati, OH.  Feel free to reach out, I'll send a DM  

@Kimberly McCabe Most areas have a real estate investors association or REIA as well as other type of investor meetups. The investor community is very friendly and willing to share information. The groups and associations usually cover all types of real estate investment opportunities. Just google your area and you should easily find one, or ask in the bigger pockets forum that focuses on the area you are interested in. The Columbus and Cincinnati Ohio has a very well run REIA. https://www.centralohioreia.co... is offering $25 monthly membership, which will give you access to attending online meetings and focus groups 5 days a week.  

Fear and taking the first jump is what keeps most people interested in real estate from starting.  Best suggestion to combat that fear is to find someone in your community who is doing what you want to do and share a deal together.  Figure out what you have to offer (ie money, time, work, finding the deal)  and what the other person has to offer (ie experience and know how) and what you want and what they want.   Make it a win win situation.  Good Luck!  

@Uday S.

Nothing in Mason but some local banks who do rental loans in the area are:  Valley Central Bank (current suspended rental loans due to Covid), Cincinnatus, Park National, Spring Valley (I think), New Foundation Bank (I think) and I'm sure there maybe some more.  If you have strong W2 income,  good credit and plan on holding the rentals for a long time, I would probably go secondary market even if it means putting the property in your personal name for a short time.  It will save you money in the long run.  

@Shlomo Koheler Very true, it is more about the equity than the number of properties when determining what your risk threshold is.  Good point on Land Trusts, I don't use them so I never researched the benefits.  If I slip and fall and sue the Land Trust and win, can I only go after the trust or can I go after the beneficiaries as well?

Hi Mizy, investing in real estate has many paths and options.  I think the best thing to do is to figure out your goals and your likes and dislikes.  Once you figure that out, it will be easier to guide you to the right path to make you successful.  As @Farida Mostajabi mentioned, https://www.cincinnatireia.com is a great place to start your journey.  

@Uday S.  I am not a CPA or attorney and my advice is based on my own experiences.  You should seek professional advice for practices and procedures best for your situation.  With that being said you had a couple of questions:

1) Having a LLC for each property: I have heard this for asset protection, but in my case I have multiple properties in different LLCs. Even the big rental companies to this, and basically comes down to how much are you willing to risk losing one lawsuit? That is the number of properties you put into one LLC. As to the risk involved, you are less likely to get sued if you treat people with respect, fix things that need to be fixed, and do the right thing. I have been a full time investor for 15+ years and haven't been involved in a lawsuit (knock on wood). I've even had an apartment fire with some tenants getting injured and had Elk and Elk snooping around. Putting the property in an LLC, having good insurance, and treating people fairly is the biggest keys to not getting sued in my opinion. Investors who do put their investments into on entity usually use Land Trusts and not LLCs.

2) Getting a loan in an LLC: If you get a secondary market loan, you will probably have to have the property in your personal name and get your spouse (if you are married) to sign off on the loan. After the loan goes through, you put the property back into the LLC, which technically violates the due on sale clause but I have never heard a bank call the loan due. I have even had loan officers help with deeding the property back into the LLC; it's a common practice. You are willing to jump though these hoops because these loans usually offer the best rate and terms. Another option is to get a loan with a smaller, local bank who will keep the property in the llc, and you and the llc guarantees the loan. These loans are easier but the rates and terms are a little higher.

3)  Property Management:  Not sure what you mean by management groups.  There are several property management companies in the Cincinnati Market.  My opinion is that the best management groups are not available to you because they only manage their own properties and portfolios, like myself.  Some are better than others, but I feel no one will have an ownership mentality or performance like you will.  I'll just leave it at that.

4) Liability issues/LLC: The LLC is set up to limit your liability if you get sued. If a tenant slips and falls at the property, he/she sues the LLC and not you personally. If he/she wins she goes after the assets of the LLC and not your personal assets. That is what a LLC protects. Like I mentioned above, treat people with respect, do the right thing, and also have a thick skin. Tenants (and maybe Property Managers) will do things that make you more angry that you can imagine. What I do, is take a deep breath, sleep on it and think of ways to solve problems that benefits you and the person involved. I've managed properties in C-/D areas and come across everything imaginable. The tenant who used her rent money to bail her son out of jail to the tenant's girlfriend who OD'd and was taken to the hospital, came back the same day and OD'd again! If you have a situation, and am not sure how to address it, post in a Facebook group and you'll get lots of advice!!

Hope this helps.  

@Chris Seveney  I seen a similar situation a few years ago when I attempted to do a short sale on a condo, but this was a 1st position note, and the condo at the time was worth around 20-25k.  Everything was agreed and was ready to close, then 5/3rd bank wanted the borrower to sign a deficiency agreement for the remaining debt.  This blew up the sale, the borrower filed bankruptcy,  gave up the condo to the bank, moved out and rented an apartment.  The condo is now vacant and 5/3rd bank hasn't foreclosed on it.  This was 2-3 years ago.  

I spoke to my neighbor about it who was an executive at 5/3rd.  He said they get the note for the deficiency amount and sells the note to a 3rd party for pennies on the dollar.  So instead of collecting the 18-20k, the bank did this and now has to foreclose to collect anything.  And btw this was Ohio so 5k+ to foreclose.  

Still shaking my head as I am typing this.  Now that I reread your post, it's not quite the same, but brought back some memories :) 

@Bill P.  Thanks.  I like to drive by the properties every once in a while and I am very familiar with the four counties mentioned and am in the areas at least 1-2 a month.  I live further away from Clermont county and am not as familiar with that area.  

@Michael Shvarts Sorry to hear about the increased assessment.  I received notices from the Hamilton County Auditor on about 30 properties last week.  15 properties valuations stayed the same, 1 decreased (for the amount I paid for it), and 14 increased.  4 of the increases were over 200%, they were condos I've purchased the past 5-6 years around 15-20k.  The assessment went from 14k to 45k.  There were no retail sales in the complex for the past 12 years until this year when 2 of the condos sold between 50-60k.  The condos are worth 50k so I viewed as a discount.  The county reassess properties every 3 years and I suspect with the increased sale prices on many properties the past 2 years, many peoples assessments will increase.

As @Conn G. and @Reece Iovine mentioned, you can file a complaint against the valuation with the Board of Revision from Jan 1st, 2021 - March 31st, 2021.  Here is the link for more info:  https://www.hcauditor.org/pdf/...  I have filed many complaints over the years and feel you won't be successful since you will have to prove that it is not worth the 140k you paid for it.  I would definitely get an appraisal showing that it's worth less if you do go that route.   

I would have filed one on my property that they decreased the assessment.  They saved me some time and effort, and am actually a little surprised they decreased it since it was an off market deal.  

@Andy Mirza  If I were the lender, I would probably go the PSO route if the fees weren't too much higher.  Most of the buyers at the sheriff sale are buying at the PSO sales.  The PSO sales also includes many investors from out of state and even out of country.   Also the sheriff sale can be intimidating for many people, and the sheriff will cut you off if you aren't aggressively bidding.  I've won many properties over the years when the sheriff cut off someone wanting to bid but took a second too long.   Each property takes no more than a few minutes to auction at the courthouse whereas I've seen properties at auction.com go 2 hours over the deadline at $100 increments every 2 minutes.