All Forum Posts by: Shane Kelly

 This is an incredibly well said post. You may be able to find some appreciation if you leverage your money quite thinly somewhere; and if you're still set on you current criteria, this is probably your only option. I do advise that appreciation is riskier but isn't impossible to predict if you do a ton of due diligence and are well versed in a market. Hopefully someone in more appreciation based markets are able to chime in here and give you advice outside of the Midwest. Best of luck! 

As Nicholas sort of said above, you need to narrow a search. If you want a small multifamily, we have a ton of those, you just need to find one that fits your price, quality, and strategy. Because there are multifamily properties that are in A areas, D areas, and everything in between. If you want a single family, there is also a ton of those, it's the same thing with multis. If you're fine with either or are unsure, the focus on a class of market that you want, or specific strategy. Either way, you need to narrow your criteria because if you leave it too broad you'll be spending too much time snapping your neck looking at everything that comes on the market and could be too slow to find any great deals. Hope this helps.

@Diane Hutchens House hacking refers to purchasing a small multifamily, usually 2-4 units, living in one of them and renting the others out as a way to offset the costs.

1.) Some of the common ways are REIAs, BP, and by going out there and doing deals. Other than that, Facebook, LinkedIn, other social media sites can be used to network. I will say as a Cleveland native, there seem to be 2 REIAs in Cleveland: the Greater Cleveland REIA, and the Great Lakes REIA. I have attended neither, but I like the looks of Greater Cleveland REIA better and plan to attend a meeting at some point in 2022.

2.) As many people have stated, there are some advantages and disadvantages. I think a solid starting point is how many deals are you going to do with it in a year or two? Because if it's just a few, then the dues and fees will likely outweigh the savings in getting it. However, this will be lessened if you're planning to do more than a few deals and/or you plan on investing in Ohio with a few investments a year for many years to come.

Based on both of these questions, I think getting a good, knowledgeable agent can both drive deal-flow and help lead you to connections that you're looking for. That's my recommendation at least. Best of luck!

Glad to hear that Cleveland is somewhere that interests you. Making connections is super important. If there's any questions you, have don't be afraid to reach out.

This is something that I would need more info on to get an actually good estimate on like: city, condition, etc. But regardless of whether I can actually do a comp on these, some hypotheticals I would like to know are: the buildings are on the same lot so would they HAVE to be sold together? What I mean is: could they be further subdivided into two separate lots and sold as two single families? And if you could, would it even be the highest and best use? Even if it's a one car driveway that just leads behind the houses or something maybe an easement could make it work, but if it's a pure one car driveway I wouldn't think it would make a lot of sense. As it stands today, it sounds like it would comp best as a duplex. Just because it loses some (but not all) of the privacy of a single family. Hopefully this helped somewhat, but definitely sounds like an odder one as a whole. Let me know if there's anything else I can possibly help with this on. Thanks!

I've had showings of both sorts. I have seen that 1:1 showings will allow for a few advantages: people feel more comfortable actually speaking their mind, people can have their questions answered before they have time to assume an answer, they can get more personal with you, and they seem to have a higher application rate. In a open house setting, the time saving is the biggest advantage, but also it motivates some prospects to want to move forward faster so they can beat out the other guy as they have then seen that this property has a lot of interest. This is also based on the fact that most of the time my showings are with people who have not applied yet, which is the system that we use at the company I work for. I've heard of people not doing showings until they have an approved applicant, which may be a way to save time as well. There seem to be many right ways to conduct showings. Do what you feel is smartest and works the best on a scale of trading time/efficiency for results. Best of luck!

As a 20-year-old looking to invest in the near future, I love the initiative you have.

A.) I see the trend a lot that investors start with SFH when they are a newer investor because it's easier to get into. Then after they amass a large enough down payment, they 1031 into a bigger MFH and then repeat that for bigger and bigger MFHs. This is kinda the "rich dad" strategy I guess you could say, and makes sense to me. However, if you had the resources and are willing to commit, I'd say you could in theory skip the SFH all together and upgrade but knowledge may be what kills you in that endeavor, so a savvy, veteran partner would be a nice addition. Do you own number crunching though, and find what makes sense for you and your backers.

B.) As for what you can buy, depends on a lot of things. If you want to get appreciation like some investors do, you have to be very picky and identify areas that have growing populations, strong job markets, etc. If all you care about is cashflow, you can try to find a Midwest cash cow somewhere that goes above the 2% rule. They each have their trade offs, where the cash cow may only be worth a dollar more than it is today in 10 years, and the appreciator may only ever break even on cash flow. At the end of the day, you make your money on the purchase, so find a good deal that fits you criteria AND stick with your criteria once it's set.

C.) Make connections with wholesalers and PMs where you're looking to invest, they can pay for themselves many times over if you make the right friends.

Best of luck!

You seem very entrepreneurial! I'm sure you live a very busy life between your businesses and teaching yoga. I love visiting Columbus myself, so I can understand why STRs are so popular there. I'm from Cleveland too, so when you eventually expand here, don't be afraid to send me a message! Best of luck!

Hello all! My name is Shane, I'm a brand new agent who was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio! I am not new to the real estate field though! I've been working for a property manager for the last year and half, learning through software like Appfolio and Showmojo while working on getting my license. I plan on working with residential and investor clients alike, to see how I can learn and use my knowledge in the future. I also would like to say as a resident here, I know a lot about Cleveland. My goal is to one day have some rental properties, of course, and hopefully to help some friends and family invest in real estate to help them increase their wealth along the way. A fun fact about me is that I work out; I love to do it and see the results as I progress! Thanks!