All Forum Posts by: Ryan Ball

We have sub-$100k loans (via our broker) with Caliber, Huntington and Stearns all in Ohio.

We have been using QuickBooks for years.  I am not an accountant and don't particularly enjoy doing the books.  We had our accountant set it up and give us a tutorial on how to do things.  There is a learning curve but it is not that complicated if you have someone who knows what they are doing set it up.

I agree with Gino above, sounds like below a C neighborhood.  If you think the neighborhood is rough and generally undesirable, that is likely the kind of tenant you are going to be able to attract.  Very easy to pro-forma a great return on these lower class properties, much harder to actually achieve that return for the reasons previously mentioned (high vacancy & turnover, lack of payment, higher maintenance costs, etc.).  I am sure there are people and property managers out there that can make these lower class properties work but we stay away from them.

I actually meant north and east of the zoo. 

I have personally steered clear of areas north and west of the zoo but that's just me. I would come up with a more firm estimate of rehab costs and bump up your estimate by 10-20%. I have found that when a place has been neglected all kinds of maintenance issues pop up that you would not expect.  I would also estimate higher vacancy and turnover for this area, similar to what you stated. I like Rentometer to get an idea of what rents are for an area. 

I drove through there 8-12 months ago and it was too rough for my taste. My property manager advised to avoid as well. 

I have found Rentometer to be pretty accurate. We have our properties show up with the correct rent. 

We do no pets for all of our units. Not worth the additional wear and tear in my opinion. 

Our property management company clears snow and salts as needed. I don't know about the law you reference. 

We have only purchased occupied buildings. All the rehab has been coordinated through/by our property manager. I have not ever talked to a contractor in Cincy. We have done a lot of kitchen and bath updates and replaced windows. No gut rehabs. 

I am in Cincy 3-4 times a year so do not oversee anything in person. I think finding a realtor/property manager who owns investment property is the key. That is make or break for out of area investing in my opinion. 

Based on my experience in Cincinnati, a $55k four unit is either in bad shape or in a bad area or more likely both. Others have hit the key issues and I agree with all of them.