All Forum Posts by: Gary Parilis

If I decide to go back to Cleveland, I will go straight to @Erin Dorsey Robinson. 

@Brian Garlington Interesting!

No, nothing below C+, but I found some "grade inflation" in Cleveland. It seemed like areas that are considered C+ in Cleveland might be C- in other markets. 

@Andrew Brown, I'll msg you

I was looking in Cleveland for a while and worked with Erin Robinson as my agent. She's fairly new as an agent, but you wouldn't know it (I believe she's been an investor longer). She's super knowledgeable about the market, very helpful and responsive, very focused on the particular needs of the buyer -- and just generally a pleasure to work with. I can give you contact info. I strongly recommend her.

A note about Cleveland and why I moved on from there... Cash flow looks terrific on paper, but dig into the state of the market (e.g., on city-data.com). Population decline, jobs leaving, property values flat, high crime. And expect high turnover and be prepared for evictions, which hurts your cash flow. Everyone has their own priorities -- just choose your market carefully. In Cleveland, I'd recommend focusing your attention in C+ neighborhoods at least.

@Barbara Pinto, congratulations on having achieved WAY more than most at your age! You're perfectly positioned to build wealth -- as long as you're patient, it will come. I agree with @Mark H. Porter and @Brandon Rush, but you'll also have plenty of cash left for additional properties. There are plenty of ways to go. Here's something to think about -- depending on your comfort level, and how expensive your market is: 

step 1: buy a multi, and live in one unit. 3.5% down on FHA, so you'll still have most of your funds

step 2: after you're comfortable with that, buy another rental, to get yourself more comfortable

step 3: BRRRR... Buy a property that needs work, such that you can buy, rehab, rent, and refinance to get most or all of your cash back out. Then repeat. These deals are hard to find, but take your time.

Since your new, step 3 might be scary. Read a LOT, and you'll begin to get comfortable.

This is just a suggestion. You have to decide what's best for you.

Unless you have some special attachment to this one (or it's an amazing deal), better to hold out for a 3 or 4 unit property.

I haven't seen any discussion on @Tyler D.'s #4 on the appreciation side: "Tend to be in more desirable areas, meaning lower chances for bad tenants." This is very important, but not necessarily an argument against focusing on cash flow. To me, it's an argument for carefully defining cash flow, where your formula includes the costs of less desirable areas and less responsible tenants: turnover (which means vacancy and paint, cleaning, etc. at a minimum), and more likely eviction. If you bake those into the cash flow calculation, you'll quickly find the properties that appear superficially to cash flow the best, actually do not.

Great! We're out of state, so reliability and communication are very important. Would you say he's good on that? And how are his prices?

Thanks again!

@Tracey Marzich, I realize it's been six years! But would you still recommend Ali?

@Ram Srinivasan, have you used him? Any other recommendations?

Thanks!