All Forum Posts by: Austin Paulenske

 Bexley!

Quick update; I'm in contract for a deal as a result of this post, thank you BP!!!!!

 I've been looking around Old Town East, Merion Village, Harrison West, Grandview Heights, Clintonville, King Lincoln, Easton, Dublin, Hilliard, Worthington, UA, Shumacher Place, German Village, Bexley etc. Basically anything in the 270 loop that isn't Franklinton, Hilltop, or Linden. I would be willing to compromise a bit further out, or a bit higher on the price if the deal made sense 2-5 years down the road. Thanks for the input!

I’ve been looking for the last few months for a solid house hack in the Columbus market fitting these stipulations;

-rental income covers PITI

-neighborhood is safe enough for my girlfriend to walk the dog at night 

-accepts bank financing (FHA)

-cosmetic rehabs at most 

I've been looking at both MLS and off market properties and meeting with several wholesalers and real estate agents in the area, and I just can't seem to find one anywhere! I've even been branching out to as far as an hour outside the city and I'm afraid the deal I'm looking for is a unicorn. I have found a handful of deals that would break even after moving out (that required extensive rehabs) but finding cashflow in this market while staying out out of the rough neighborhoods seems next to impossible. Would love some insight and some ideas to adjust my approach/ insight on if what I'm looking for is even possible in this market. Appreciate any feedback!

Hey guys,

This will be the first year I am writing off an investment property on my taxes and I'm having a hard time determining what my Assessed Value Ratio % and my Marginal Tax Rate are for tax season this year. 

1. Is the value ratio based on what I paid vs the appraisal or market value vs the appraisal?
2. Is my marginal rate based on rental property income from cashflow or my overall taxable income? 

Any input is appreciated, See snapshot below!

 Sure Nizar, I've found that my GC has very little sense of urgency, committing to deadlines that he cannot meet, not showing up as scheduled and just plain unreliable. I ended up finding other contractors my self to work under him and essentially doing his job by coordinating the work with them. Granted he is also an agent and owns a cabinetry company, I understand that he has other projects going on that he's managing but I just did not feel that the project fell very high on his priority list. The $35k 1 month project turned into almost 4 months because of poor coordination on the lead-times for the materials that could've been ordered beforehand and flakey contractors not showing up/ working half days. The man went on vacation to Miami the week that my tenant was supposed to move in after already pushing back the move in date 3 times! Luckily my tenant had another place to live and was patient enough to stick around. All in all I would say the biggest red flags that I'm not sure I could've anticipated without experiencing it for myself were the lack of commitment to the project, lack of project management skills, and lack of planning ahead/ anticipating lead-times of materials. In the future I will probably get all the materials myself beforehand so that the contractors can get right to work!

 Thanks Michael!

And the facility is in Groveport, about 20 minutes south of Columbus. There are actually several in the area, Luxottica, Essilor and Vision Source are all in Groveport! In the optical industry they are referred to "labs" as opposed to factories as they categorized as medical equipment. 

Thanks Remington! Great to meet other local investors. Would love to hear about your experience thus far in this market. 

What's up BiggerPockets community,

My name is Austin and I'm a newbie investor out of Columbus Ohio. I am a 25 year old Senior Process Engineer working full time in the optical industry overseeing manufacturing operations for producing perception glasses and part time BiggerPockets fanatic/ Investor. I hope to retire from my engineering job within the next 5 years and focus full time on Real Estate Investing. The niche that has sparked my interest is long-term rental properties/ buy and hold, cash flowing multi-family homes and potentially Airbnb vacation rentals as well... we will see where this road takes me! I recently completed real estate school in pursuit of a salesperson license but realized that path is not where I want to land (no pun intended), and have since shifted my focus onto the Investing side of the game. 

I recently closed my first deal in a westside suburb of Cleveland Ohio on an off-market condo deal. I purchased a gutted 990 square foot condo for $70,000 with a 203k loan with an additional $35,000 for construction for a total bundled mortgage of $105,000. Just finishing up the construction and got my tenant in there last week (my mother). I learned a whole a lot about all the "red tape" surrounding the whole construction loan process through a lender (took almost 4 months to close) and the hoops you have to jump through to pull off the deal. On top of that I learned a thing or two about unreliable/ unprofessional contractors and trying to manage a full rehab project from 3 hours away by myself (do not recommend). Anyways, when it's all said and done, seeing the ROI/cash flow potential and the learning experience that I gained from this project makes it all worth it!

Excited to embark on this new adventure and contribute to the BiggerPockets community!

I attached the deal analysis below for anyone who is curious, would love some feedback/ constructive criticism. 
View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.