All Forum Posts by: Bob Collett

Forget about the lease not being enforceable... Imagine the personal and criminal liability if there were every a fire in that unit. I say not worth the risk. I just had the local city inspector in Lakewood, OH require my client to remove cabinets and plumbing and cap off the plumbing in an attic conversion, just to be sure that nobody used it as living space.  What city are you buying in?

Hi everyone

There are a couple of trade associations for property managers and one that focuses on single family residential. Are these worth while? Have you gone to their annual trade association meeting, and was it worth the investment in time and money? Any input would be appreciated.

Welcome Elder

I am active in Maple Heights as well. Would love to meet with you sometime to share notes.

Bob

David, I am currently managing about six properties in Maple Heights. The homes are solid, but I am finding that unless you are very careful in selecting tenants, there can be unpleasant outcomes. I spoke with one of the inspectors a couple of days ago. They tell me that there is an uncomfortably high percentage of rental homes vs. owner occupants, and because of this the city can be difficult to work with for investors. I was recently advised that we needed to resurface an asphalt driveway at a cost of about $5000 just to get a rental permit. The driveway was in fairly good shape compared to the surrounding owner occupant homes. Lets get together sometime.

Bob Collett, Remax Trinity

Hi Tony

I have done 6 flips in the Cleveland area over the past couple of years. It is most important that you carefully define your objectives. Are you are looking to buy a $25K to $30K house to flip, or are you looking to invest $25k to $30k for your down payment and rehab costs?

I have typically done my flips is great school system neighborhoods with a buy price between $50k to $100k. Including the cost of rehab and holding cost, I am getting out with a 35% to 45% ROI. In my case I pay cash, but you can work the additional cost of debt into your calculations.

I am interested in hearing back from you as to your objectives.

Good luck

Bob Collett, Remax Trinity

Hi Lisa... excellent question. Lots of good answers already given.

I am an agent and property manager here in Cleveland area. I worked at a couple of different brokerages until I settled in at Remax Trinity in Brecksville OH. Some companies have more structured training than others, and if you might want to take a look around and see who has a good hands-on training program in your area. In my case, I focused on areas that I wanted to personally invest in. I like the good school district communities, and places where I did not have to worry so much about my tools getting stolen.  I selected areas that were a short drive from my residence because I felt I could service people better if I could get there in 10 minutes. In these areas, I go to all the Broker open houses, meet with other agents, visit the weekend open houses, and also spend some ad bucks promoting my name on Z, for example for a couple of the zip codes I am focusing on.

I personally believe that one can achieve success in any area if you immerse yourself in it. So this also means scour the MLS for listings and solds in your selected areas. As some others suggested, start with a small area. Join local chambers, and do lots of networking in your well defined target area. The idea is that in a short amount of time people will start thinking of you as an expert in that area. Offer to do some open houses for your fellow realtors in your target area. This will help you collect some buyers who are likely interested in the same neighborhoods. Check out the county websites and get the data on every foreclosure in your target area over the past year or so. If its too much to remember, then your area might be too big. When we do all of these things, we learn lots of stuff to talk about... not only the housing stock, but also parks, and community events, municipal issues, politics, school issues, housing codes, restaurants, etc.

Good luck.

Jerry

As other's have stated, it is certainly legal in Ohio to buy property and manage it yourself. You may of hire a licensed broker or its agent to do property management for you. It is illegal for an unlicensed person or company to offer property management services for another, unless that person is a normal employee of the owner of the property. In this case, normal employee means that the employee is paid via W2 not 1099, and that you pay social security, worker's comp, etc.; and that you schedule the employees hours. If you  do all of these things, then your employee can conduct property management activities for the properties that you own.

Bob Collett

Hi All

I have heard good things about this group from Aaron Westerburg. I have done some deals with a couple of members here, so I am really looking forward to joining you and doing some networking.

My current focus is property management. I have considerable experience as an investor, and working with investors. I am looking to put an additional 100 properties under management in 2016. I work with quite a few international investors. They need to work with a property manager that they can trust.