Also, ive usually assumed a good maintanence ball park to be 10% of gross rents. there is no way for me to get actual numbers.

I would send the contract after we had conversed on the phone, but we just weren't even in the same ball park.

I happen to use 1.33% to get a ball park figure.  

Of course I don't have a crystal ball, but I think we may see things settle or even dip in the near future.  

I'm looking to network with investors in the area and learn more about how to find these types of properties and seek out deals / motivated sellers.What are some things I can do to get the ball rolling, and what are some areas in northeast Ohio that I shuold be searching in for this type of investment?

It can cause major delays on the buying side, as well as trying to find tenants.Had a deal this summer where POS was satisfied, and they came in and did a rental inspection 2 months later, and found 5k in additional work that the POS inspector didn't find...all this happened while a tenant wanted to be in the property, but the city took 4 weeks to get to the inspection done, so the tenant found something else...Not trying to say you can't find good values there you can, just make sure your PM is on the ball with the city, and getting things done in advance.  

If they agree to that ball park, I would set the appointment. 

I wouldn't even encourage low-balling this one, as the figure would STILL likely be too high...

Overall, you're probably going to want to snow ball your equity for a couple more years to expand your portfolio before consolidating and focusing on cash flow. 

We've had lots of people come look at it but only one low ball offer (8% below asking) and the buyer wouldn't budge off of their number.