All Forum Posts by: Brian S.

@Cliff Kelley 

@Troy Williams and myself are in Shanghai and we have a local real estate group with both Chinese and foreigners. Feel free to connect and we could talk more.

I never heard of Juwai but your biggest issue will be getting money out of China. It can be done, but its not easy.

Brian

@Nam Nguyen Welcome!

Avon is a little too far from Cleveland for buying rental properties IMO. The renting % is definitely below average for the state of Ohio. Its a beautiful town but not sure it will be easy finding tenants. 

Personally, if you staying on the west side of Cleveland, I wouldn't get any further west than Westlake....and even that's a stretch.

Good luck!

I'm also from Cleveland and just want to make a few points. While I have property in the suburbs, I do not plan on buying any more properties in Cuyahoga county for a few reasons:

Taxes are sky high in a lot of areas surrounding Cleveland.

Water and sewer prices are also outrageously high.

Lot of old properties and I'm done dealing with basement issues.

Cleveland winters are brutal and hell on homes (part of my last point above).

Losing population.

Also like @Aaron David Horton I am overseas for work and not in Cleveland. I do not plan to return to Cleveland to live after my time abroad is done. I'll be relocating to FL at some point, so my other reasons for not buying in Cleveland anymore also have to do with me not living there in the future

I hate to be so negative about my hometown but the reasons above just turn me off to the real estate market there. 

Brian

@Mary Ann Casey I would shop around as other have said. The $25 dollar fee for tenants paying late would be enough for me to change! That's crazy but unfortunately, Cleveland has some really terrible PM companies.

I'm using a PM company now that I'm on the fence about but will wait until Feb to make a decision on continuing to use them. That will be a full year with them, and the first 6 months were brutal, but things have calmed down since then. Feel free to PM if you'd like more details.

Brian

@Darius Tracy I use My Savings Direct for my savings which has 2.32% interest rate and an annual percentage yield of

2.35%. I got the idea out of a investing book I was reading and then just did some research on the best high interest savings accounts. They are backed by Emigrant Bank so I felt secure making this change. So far, so good.
Brian

Hi @Amir B. I want to echo what @James Galla said about the knob/tube wiring. I am from Cleveland and just moved overseas for work last August. I've looked at many properties in Lakewood and never found anything I liked. The issues I constantly saw were the electrical and fountain issues. There's a lot of old houses in Lakewood. Between these issues, over priced houses (as I believe is the case with the quad you are talking about) and high taxes, I just cant justify buying in Lakewood. But if you are up to the challenges and you think its a good, thats up to you. We all have our own criteria, some more pickier than others, so this is just my 2 cents.

Someone else mentioned flying out to see the property, I would highly advise that as well. 

Good luck!

@Derek Falconer The previous post by @Michael Kiley was on the money. I stay away from Lakewood due to over priced homes and high taxes. Kams would be the better place to buy a rental IMO. I have property in Parma (west side of Cleveland) and taxes are just too high. I'm from Cleveland but I can't see myself buying another property in Cuyahoga county again due to high taxes, among other things.

As for PM's...good luck. Wish I could recommend a good company but still haven't found one. If I wasn't overseas at the moment, I'd definitely be self managing. Expect to be paying a PM company 15-20% monthly rent due to misc fees and other costs. 

Brian

@Mike M. I have a duplex in Parma and it does have a garage. I'm sure its a benefit to have but I wouldn't say its a deal breaker. The duplex next to mine has no garage, just a big asphalt lot.   They seem to have tenants in there most of the time.

I don't have a dishwasher and I never had any prospective tenant ask if we provided. I think providing a washing machine and dryer was most beneficial IMO.

One deal breaker for Parma would be to double and triple check if there is any basement flooding. There are parts of Parma that flood when it rains heavy. Its not just rain water....its sewer backup. I have a coworker who lives in Parma and this has happened to her 6x in the past 8 years. There a few streets affected and I think so is my street, at least parts of it are. I'm on Tuxedo closer towards Broadview. Just be cautious of this.

If you need anything else, feel free to DM me.

Brian

@Pat Noyes

Hi Pat (Bob),

Welcome to BP. I was at one point your neighbor but I am overseas now for work. I still have a duplex on Tuxedo near Broadview Rd in Parma.

I didn't read all of the responses here, but I did see someone mentioned syndication. Being on the other side of the world, I cannot be as active as I'd like to be in real estate in the USA. I recently moved my 401k into a self directed IRA and put that money to work in a syndication. Its been a great experience so far and I'd highly recommend the company.

Good luck!

Brian

Hi Casey, 

When I managed my property in Parma, I paid for a snow removal service. The driveway is about 5-6 car lengths long so its quite big, I figured this would be a good way to get tenants in and try to avoid slips and falls. I paid $20 a push and they were quite reliable (the company is called Clutch). I think I could have paid $350 for the entire year, so its a gamble. For the few years I used them, it was cheaper paying per push. They come out when its 2" or more on the ground.

While they are reliable when it did snow more than 2", they were far from removing all the snow from the driveway. I rarely saw the cement and seems it was packed down with ice most of the winter. I could of paid extra for salt, but I didn't. I assume I would have this issue with any plow company in Cleveland.

Now that I use a PM company, it is written in their lease that they are responsible for the snow removal. I just changed to a PM company earlier this year, so I don't know how it will be now that the tenants are responsible for the snow removal. If the plow companies actually removed all of the snow, I would say its worth the extra money. But that wasn't the case. We'll see how this winter goes!