OH as a whole has the second highest vacancy rate in the country, one of the top population decliners, and has an unsatble RE market.I feel your strategy explanation would better equip us to answer your question, plus I am curious about what info led you to the conclusion you reached.

@Nathan Waters I believe I was eyeballing the same duplex + fourplex the other day and came to the same conclusion.

Whoa @Spencer Brennon, you are jumping to conclusions. 

I don't see how you can draw the conclusion that professionals are leaving real estate from the performance of a fund that is open to the public.- I would argue that the performance of ETFs in general are driven more by covariance with the the greater stock market than anything else.No argument with your conclusion.  

We will usually get 1 or 2 projects a day from sponsors or brokers asking whether we can get their construction projects financed.We usually subject the project to a quick quantitative analysis to determine whether we should pursue financing for a project.This allows us to filter based on objective measures rather than subjective feel.I have fallen in love with a number of proposed developments only to find out that they were not economically feasible after running the numbers.I hope this helps both developers and brokers come to realistic conclusions regarding the financing of their projects.It’s not that their projects can’t be financed.It just may take an adjustment to the overall capital stack to get it done.For instance, a mezzanine loan may be needed to fill a portion; or maybe an equity partner can help increase the equity portion of the stack; or, maybe both are needed to complete the financing stack.

If i were in that area and investing I would look at Columbus or Indy.I have to disagree, but can see how one could come to such a conclusion growing up in Louisville and not having lived there for the past 10 years or so.If your strategy is truly to buy and hold, then you're looking for cash flow today and tomorrow and any appreciation is a bonus.  

The only thing I am saying, is that you haven't followed his "recipe" verbatim, try that before settling on conclusions.  

The fact that he has no mortgage, paying for just fire insurance, turned off the water, keeping the units vacant, not advertising the property online what so ever, and refuses to hire a realtor because they are too expensive, leads me to one conclusion......

With all this being said, I've done research and come to another conclusion which is:If you increase rent 10% or less you can give tenants 30 days notice if they don't agree to the new rent.If you increase rent more than 10% and your tenant does not agree you have to provide them with a 60 day notice.I would stick to the 5% plus inflation to be a reasonable landlord, but I guess it comes down to what you are comfy with.

Research for yourself and draw your own conclusions but that's what I'd do.