Do you know about Westwood in Cincinnati, OH?

Question

Are investors in Cincinnati familiar w/ Westwood? In the photo in https://www.realtor.com/reales..., I see a police car from HSPS, a private armed security police. Is managing tenants in this area pretty difficult because of the high crime?

Adam Walter · Answer

@Susan Tan  Westwood is a pretty large area in Cincinnati, with some areas better than others.  The realtor.com link you provided is on Gobel ave which is a street that primarily has 4-family buildings on it.  The area has seen significant improvement over the past 3-5 years with increased rental rates and renovation, but is also an area that is rougher than other parts of Westwood.  I've managed many 4-family buildings in similar areas to the one on Gobel. I sold a 4-family and 3-family right up the street just yesterday.  I believe your biggest challenge will not be the tenants, it will be finding someone who can properly manage the property.    4-families areas like this require more hands on management and the best property managers in Cincinnati either manage their own portfolio (myself include) or have their own management company.   I'm assuming you are from California and plan on outsourcing the management to someone local.  I would recommend either looking at single family rentals in Westwood or multifamily properties in better areas.  Your return on investment is probably lower, but the risk and maintenance is lower too.  I was making a good return on the one's I had, but it was taking too much of my time and wanted to focus on other areas of investing.   Hope this helps.   Here is a link I just came across about investing in Westwood: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Susan Tan · Answer

@Adam Walter It sounds like a good plan to sell the multifamily properties in Westwood in exchange for properties in better areas. I intend to hire out a property manager because I live in CA. The 4plexes in areas that are better areas tend to be in the $250k+ price range right now, which is a huge price difference compared to this 4plex in Westwood.