Rental Property Investor · Jacksonville, NC · Member since 2018 · 5 posts · 1 vote
Hello BP Community!
I'm currently looking into Dayton Ohio as a potential market for purchasing and renting homes. Any input from others who invest in the area would be appreciated but I'm specifically interested in the seemingly low cost of homes in the area, vacancy, and rental rates.
Sadly I don't know too much about Dayton. I'm just about 20 minutes from there in Springfield. Similar market, Dayton is a bit bigger. Houses here are cheap and there will always be a market for low cost rentals. However, out of state, the costs with managing would eat into any profit margin.
That is unfortunate, but understandable. Do you know any neighboring areas that might bring in more cash flow? I’m looking into that triangle between Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus.
@Brandon Ross A good property manager will be one of the most critical members to your team. I'm local, and I use a property manager for most of my properties. The margins are good enough to pay for it, and the time savings is well worth it.
I always budget 10% for vacancy, but run well under that.
There are some great low priced homes to be had. However, be careful. Each neighborhood, and even each block, can be different. One home in a low priced area will have much higher vacancies and expenses than a similar home on the next block. Tenant screening and property selection are crucial.
A solid performing property can be purchased for 40-50k, and rent for 600-700 per month. (with variations for bedrooms, updates, etc.)
One of the cheapest ways to buy houses anywhere in the world is Daytons lot links program. You get a house with foreclosed title off the city for 750 including costs. You have to go down low house hunting, or know someone like me who already did that, and then plan two years ahead.
Nicely finished single family are going for around 80k and renting for around 850. The tenant pool is much bigger and much, much better with a highly polished mid century supersolid house. You find them all over the more promising parts of dayton proper. Dont bother updating so much, you may be destroying a solid antique. Lol
That falls right into the market I’m currently pursuing. Single family cash flowing homes for $40,000 to $60,000 would be ideal however I am also willing to rehab distressed homes in the right neighborhood.
As a local investor do you have any recommendations for property managers and agents/brokers experienced with out of state investors?
I’d like to gather more information on the area and paint by the numbers. If everything looks good all I’ll need to do is make a deal.
@Brandon Ross I sent you a pm introducing myself. If you want to chat in depth feel free to reach out. I think @Darrin Carey and @Gordon Starr are both spot on. If anything they are being a little conservative in their numbers from what I'm getting personally but that's a good thing.
Thanks @Ozzy Smith. The numbers are conservative intentionally. You and I and other locals will usually do better than those numbers since we're out here beating the bushes and streets personally.
However, we're putting a lot more time into finding the deals, so it may be a wash.