All Forum Posts by: John Mullen

Thanks for the thoughts everybody!  I was intrigued by what @Clay Boykin was saying about impending attention swinging from the Sunbelt to the Midwest.  I hadn't heard that take before.  The other thoughts are well-formulated and run the spectrum of what I'm familiar with, from "Zillow contributed to a bubble and now they're trying to avoid paying the piper" to "this is just normal winter cool-off."  My semi-educated guess is that it's somewhere in between those two positions.  If pressed, I would say that while Columbus is still hot relative to some nearby cities like Cleveland, this winter is proceeding a lot differently from the frenzy last winter.  But as @Jason DeVelvis said, slowdown is relative!  Thanks again all, and happy hunting. 

John M.

Hey Columbus investors,

Checking Zillow lately and comparing results against a less-heavily-invested-in city (Cleveland), I seem to be seeing a pattern of an overbought and cooling-off real estate market here.  Even the B and C areas like Franklinton and North Linden are nearly all bought up and flipped/listed for rent, and Zillow has scores of properties listed for rent that have sat for 30-90 days (if not more).  Several of the obviously-flipped and listed properties for sale have also had recent price reductions.  You can always find some doom and gloomer claiming that this is the end, but are we perhaps finally past the peak of the Columbus real estate buy-up of recent years?  Or is this a pause in the storm about to resume?  Or have I drawn faulty conclusions from my perusal of Zillow?  Happy to hear all thoughts.

Thanks,

John M.

Thank you both for the answers! I am currently looking into the pros and cons of forming a real estate LLC in Ohio. So far I've found:

https://www.millionacres.com/r...

https://www.legalzoom.com/arti...

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Hopefully some of that is useful for the next person to have this question.

Hi all, 

I'm a first-time investor looking for rental properties (BRRR/buy-and-hold) in Columbus, OH. My business partner and I are seeking the best way to apply for conventional loans on future investment properties. My understanding is that lenders typically just examine one applicant's finances when determining whether to approve loans. We considered forming an LLC and sharing capital that way, but we know that lenders prefer to loan to individuals rather than LLCs with no income. I know we're not the first people to need to get around this roadblock. Anyone have good advice on this topic? And if I'm laboring under any false assumptions in my statements, please correct me.