All Forum Posts by: Dan Sarao

@Robert Matelski - thats an awesome story, and I agree with your last sentence 100%!

Anyone else?

If you are an out out of state (or even another part of OH) investor who is actively investing in greater Cleveland tell, where do you live? What was the reason you chose to invest in Cleveland? Are you actively investing in your home area or any other geographical areas? 

I'll start. I started investing in Cleveland, OH when I was living in greater Boston, MA because of cost of properties in the greater Boston area were very high to start with and were growing rapidly.  I now live in Southwest Florida, but still investing in Cleveland even though you can find better deals in SW FL than in MA.  I just like Cleveland :)

For those who have been learning about real estate investing for a while (6-12 months plus) and have not yet done a deal, or for those who have done a deal and then are hesitant to do another what are the reasons for your hesitancy or fear?  I really want to understand the true drivers of why people are afraid to move past the analysis of a deal, especially when they find a good one.  

I want to keep it pretty broad so that people don't feel they have to confine their answers.  

This is more just a curiosity for me, and I am hoping a learning experience for everyone. 

You may want to at least look into a rehab to rent, all in one loan instead. Seems like more and more lenders are doing those nowadays.  It will save you the hassle of having to refinance, and depending on the structure it might save you some of the points and such, from what I understand. 

Available to get into and see? Send me a DM please so we can discuss further.

You can definitely do the leg work yourself by finding the properties, marketing to them and locking them up under contract.  In other words find them and buy them before a tax sale or auction even happens.  If your focus is not researching properties, marketing or knocking on doors the easiest way is to just work with and buy them from a firm that specializes in finding off market properties such as these. 

@Blaze Pavars - would agree with @Tom Ott and @Account Closed. Flipping in Cleveland, or anywhere as an out of state investor when you are so new to..well everything..might be a hard one to pull off unless you have a solid, local team that you are connected with and have worked with or at least have people you personally know that can vouch for them. Get your feet wet with a buy and hold, whether it is turn key, off market, or on market once you get set up with a good PM you should be good to go. 

To your other question make sure you understand the neighborhoods of Cleveland on a street by street basis.  @James Wise's guide is a great start.  Once you get through that make sure you understand that certain zip codes can vary from A to F grades and you need to 1. know where the property is you are looking at and 2. make sure it fits your strategy and risk tolerance. 

Best of luck. 

@Ray Pryer - not sure of their seasoning period but we have a few folks we can recommend to ask. Send me a DM.

Mostly everyone will tell you to ask them a solid list of questions to vet them out, but unfortunately when I have gone through this interview process it appears the answers are probably memorized as they have been asked them so many times. Its tough right because people can say the right things and then turn out to be completely different in what they actually do.  In turn, the best way is to use referrals and read reviews to make sure their actions (or the actions of their teams) are consistent with what they are saying and that others have had a good experience.  

There is also the thing, and not saying this is you, but some people expect A LOT from their PM where at the end of the day they aren't really making much money off you.  As the firms get bigger I would assume it becomes harder to keep that personal service level of a smaller team (some seem better than others).  At the same time there are benefits of a larger firm, such as the systems they have in place and the relationships they have built, which makes it more streamlined when things need to be actioned. 

Again, read reviews and use referrals and personal experiences of other members and investors in the specific area you are interested in. 

this is a good approach.  Combine this with your other criteria and you should be good to go. If you open the search up you should see clusters and that should give you your areas for that age that also Meet your criteria.