All Forum Posts by: Ben Smalley

Awesome Chris! Cleveland is a great market for investing. Let me know if you have any questions

For single-family homes we have our tenants handle snow removal. For multi-family properties with 2-3 units we also have tenants responsible. For buildings with 4+ units the owner handles it (we as the PM use our contractors) but it is usually only a few hundred dollars per season so if that makes or breaks your deal, the margins were too thin to begin with.

If the tenant is on a month to month lease then you can give them 30-day's notice to vacate. However, many tenants will get upset by this and not pay the final month of rent but hopefully you have a deposit and they haven't trashed the place. Ohio is very landlord friendly so it is very easy to remove a tenant when compared to CA!

@Janel Briones depends on the city but I can give you some rough numbers. Where at?

Make sure you have someone good that knows the area. There are a lot of nuances in the Cleveland market and that $20K property could end up costing you $40k over time.

The "hottest" areas in Cleveland are Tremont and Ohio City which have had a lot of appreciation. As others said Lakewood is decent as well. Outside of that I wouldn't bank on a ton of appreciation. 

We manage a number of units in the Cleveland suburbs and If it is priced correctly and the unit is ready to go - cleaned, painted, presents well. It should rent in 1-3 weeks.

@Brian Garlington personally I love them. Some of our best tenants. They have to go through a lot extra hoops so when they do get approved they tend to be very appreciative and respectful while staying longer. Owners have to be patient though but I think it’s worth it. You still need to do your due diligence like any other applicant of course.  

Ohio law states that if there is a single meter serving multiple units you cannot prorate it. This is the case with many 2-4 family properties as well as commercial buildings. You can add a "water charge" into the rent amount though. 

This also varies by city. Euclid and Cleveland Heights have expensive water bills but Cleveland seems to have higher sewer bills. 

Note too that some older MF buildings have one central hot water tank and/or boiler. You would also pay the gas bill on those. 

@Filipe Pereira and @Allan Smith I agree 100% -- I am a PM in Cleveland as well and it should be a percentage of rents collected and lease up fee and that is all. We pass late fees to owners because if they aren't paying that is a reflection on us. We also do not mark up labor. 

To make the numbers work we stay lean by leveraging technology and charging a higher percentage of rents. We do not try to be the cheapest, we try to offer great service. This keeps the pricing transparent and aligned with owners. The initial percentage turns a lot of investors off but they usually come back 6-months later saying the PM they hired for 7% sucks.

I would be skeptical of PMs that say their fee "is only 7% of gross rents" because they are the ones that have hidden fees.