All Forum Posts by: Aram Jawad

In the past 10 years, Columbus had seen an enormous growth in many aspects. Business wise, Columbus GDP had grew by over %50, making over $137 billion annually in the last 10 years. Employment in Columbus growing over %3.5 yearly. While over %90 of Columbus population carries a high school diploma. Columbus also rated the 5th city in the US for STEM jobs, aside from the Ohio State University, One of the major Universities in the US and the Third largest campus in the US by size. With all that growth that Columbus is seeing, Real Estate comes to play a major role in assisting all of those people to create a great, comfortable place for them to settle in. Which is a great soil and a green land for Real Estate investors who are seeking to create a passive income, Airbnbs, and flips.

 I believe it Jonathan, this week we listed a house on Monday morning, by Tuesday night, the house was sold.

Not defending anyone here, but I think it's because CA has more investors than Ohio, which when coming to buy a property , majority of them uses cash, so it kind of leaves banks there with less loans to make. So as a counter action from banks is that they lower their interest rates to gain more borrowers

Yes, strongly agree with you on the fact that there are ton of investment in Columbus and if the #s makes sense you probably should invest.

Earlier this morning, I was reading an article about the Columbus housing prices. It was a shock when I learned that Columbus is the only city in the top 20 cities in the US with a population over 1 million people. This is great for realtors and for business in general, the more people the better the economy. Especially when large names are investing in Columbus like Intel and Honda which it was a factor to lead to over %70 percent of central Ohio houses are sold only within 30 days or less in March, 2023. The demand is extremely high, while the supply is fairly low.

It's great to hear that interest rates are dropping down. While the inflation is still elevated, we started to see a graduate decline in interest rates. Many home buyers earlier this year were paying around 7% but, recently we start to see home buyers getting loans for little over 6% which is a good indicator for the market. Julia Gordon, Federal Housing Administration Commissioner, said that they follow the same steps as a conventional loans do, in case of time, some requirements, and appraisal guidelines. Since many people uses FHA loans, that could stable the market a bit more, so for now we are hoping for the best but, also prepared for the worst.

Hey Scott, flipping houses is probably one of my favorite strategies in real estate. I understand the frustration when it comes to competing with other flippers when trying to submit an offer on a property. The world we live in is moving much faster. Correct me if I'm wrong, what it sound like is you have personal relationships with sub contractors (contractors, HVAC techs, plumbers, electricians). If that is the case, seems like a lot of moving pieces to get an accurate rehab numbers and could be what is slowing you down. The investors I have worked with, here is Columbus, OH, have found alot of success with building great relationships with general contractors where you are outsourcing someone to have the sub contractor relationships. You will be able to get your rehab quotes in line much quicker (24 hour or less turn around) so you are able to submit a competitive yet comfortable offer that works for you. As far as permits go, I agree with you. Some people aren't pulling permits, but that is when you start to seeing "lipstick on a pig" finishes or things weren't done properly causing issues for the homeowner later on. I would recommend to continue pulling permits, you don't want to find yourself in a situation where you are flagged by the city and a stop work order is placed on the property. 

All and all, I would recommend building relationships with general contractors to save you time by having them come out to the property with you when submitting an offer on the home. Happy Hunting.

Hey Keith, I recommend you to start in the Columbus market. In the past years Columbus grew out to be the largest 15th city in the entire nation. You could start in central Ohio. The other day I was reading an article about Franklin county historic houses where the houses are being increased in value of 30-35%. The good news there are plenty of distressed houses in Franklin county that needed to be flipped, Good luck.