buying and hold property

[Sheila Garcia]

looking to invest in Cleveland Ohio, my concern is I'm from Florida and it's a long-distance investment any advice on areas to invest on and property management team to hire, I haven't been to the area is it a tenant friendly or landlord. Thank you

[Will Fraser]

Welcome to the BP community, @Sheila Garcia! 

I'd highly recommend reading David Green's book about Long Distance Investing. 

Regarding PMs in Cleveland, I can connect you with one I mastermind with and they would be a great group to borrow a team from!

[Sheila Garcia]

Thank You 

[Drew Sygit]

@Sheila Garcia

Even if someone give you a referral, what meets their expectations, may not meet yours.

In our experience, the #1 mistake owners make when selecting a Property Management Company (PMC) is ASSUMING instead of CONFIRMING.

It's often a case of not doing enough research, as they don't know what they don't know!

Owners mistakenly ASSUME all PMCs offer the exact SAME SERVICES and PERFORM those services EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, so price is the only differentiator.

So, the first question they usually ask a PMC is about fees - instead of asking about services and HOW those services are executed.

EXAMPLE: PMC states they will handle tenant screening – what does that specifically mean? What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.? You’d be shocked by how little actual screening many PMC’s do!

This also leads owners to ASSUME simpler is better when it comes to management contracts.

The reality is the opposite - if it's not in writing then the PMC doesn't have to provide the service or can charge extra for it!

We have a 14-page management contract that we've added our real experiences to over the years, with the intent of protecting both us AND the landlord. Beyond the Monthly Management, Placement & Maintenance fees, all other fees in our contract are IF EVENT -> THEN fees.

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processes

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

EDUCATE YOURSELF - yes, it will take time, but will lead to a selection that better meets your expectations & avoids potentially costly surprises!

P.S. If you just hire the cheapest or first PMC you speak with and it turns into a bad experience, please don’t assume ALL PMC’s are bad and start trashing PMC’s in general. Take ownership of your mistake and learn to do the proper due diligence recommended above😊

[Sheila Garcia]

Thanks for the info.

[Oluwafemi Kolawole]

Hey Sheila, I am actually an Investor and Deal sourcing wholesaler in Cleveland OH. It is landlord friendly although since the Pandemic there has been some delays in evictions so you want to be careful if Inheriting previous tenants, some might be good and others a nightmare things I suggest to look out for are: 
1. Preferably make sure the tenants are on a Month-to-Month lease, because this allows you to remove the tenant easily by just refusing to renew their lease instead of filing a non-payment eviction (there is a lot the City tries to help the tenant with before actually evicting them. A usual 6 weeks eviction process is now taking 12-16 weeks

2. Buy Vacant when possible, but if with long-term leased tenants make sure to collect verifiable rent rolls 

3. Have a boots-on-the-ground person who could check on the property, host showings, schedule utilities, and do any other essential task you need to be done.

Investing areas is a much more profound question as it pertains to your investing goals. Do you value High-cashflow or Appreciation? Short-term, long-term, or mid-term investing?
I'm guessing you're looking for long-term passive investment, so my answer would be based on this

Because Cleveland is divided into three areas overall investment speaking, at least to me:
1. High cashflow, No appreciation ( Innercity Cleveland areas median income zips <30,000 - 35,000)
2. Low-Cashflow, Strong Appreciation (The suburbs)
3. Hybrid - Decent cashflow and Decent Appreciation (C+ areas or better with median income >35,000) 

This is a generalization but more specifically a lot of my buyers have been buying in Euclid, maple Heights, Garfield Heights and really most places on the West side of Cleveland. 
Congratulations and Goodluck on your investment journey! I hope this answer helps out, feel free to reach out if you have more questions this was getting a little long to start on Property Managers lol.

[Scott Allen]

@Sheila Garcia

I can send you some referrals 

[James Wise]

Quote from @Sheila Garcia:

looking to invest in Cleveland Ohio, my concern is I'm from Florida and it's a long-distance investment any advice on areas to invest on and property management team to hire, I haven't been to the area is it a tenant friendly or landlord. Thank you

Overall, you're in Ohio which is red and very landlord friendly. However, some of the cities in the Cleveland market are very tenant friendly. Cleveland Heights is probably the most tenant friendly city in this market.

[Steven Foster Wilson]

Quote from @Sheila Garcia:

looking to invest in Cleveland Ohio, my concern is I'm from Florida and it's a long-distance investment any advice on areas to invest on and property management team to hire, I haven't been to the area is it a tenant friendly or landlord. Thank you

 Hi @Sheila Garcia welcome to BP! I'm glad to see you're taking an interest in the Ohio market.

I highly recommended for you to read through the Core 4 Vital to a Profitable Long-Distance Real Estate Investing Team by David Greene before investing out of state. You can learn about it on this link here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Once you've decided to go forward with your real estate journey out of state, you can then look for the perfect neighborhood to start with.

I have multiple units in Cleveland giving me steady returns, if you need help building a team or finding a good neighborhood to start on, let's connect and discuss how I can help you out.

[Bob Stevens]

Quote from @Sheila Garcia:

looking to invest in Cleveland Ohio, my concern is I'm from Florida and it's a long-distance investment any advice on areas to invest on and property management team to hire, I haven't been to the area is it a tenant friendly or landlord. Thank you

 Simple , connect with someone that provides rentals 100% hands off for out of state investors,,, 

Good luck 

Oh but you will need to be cash to get the great deals, 

[Brandon Goldsmith]

As a few others have said, Ohio is overall a pretty landlord-friendly state. There are a few different markets that differ on price and development but might be a good state to start the OOS investing journey @Sheila Garcia

[Garrett Crosby]

Hi @Sheila Garcia - I used to be in your shoes. Was in LA and wanted to invest out of state to start my portfolio. I landed in Fayetteville and have had some amazing luck with a great cash-on-cash return on my investment. 

I find that the hardest part in investing out of state is often not the deal, but putting together the team to serve you. I'm so grateful I found mine. I've never set foot in NC, never worry about my tenants, never worry about my rehabs, never walked my property, etc. - and the properties still cash flow 400-600 each. :) 

Happy to connect with you if you want to know more about it. Likewise, I can always talk to you about LA opportunities too. Just happy to help in any way I can. Once you get started, you won't stop!

[Michael Orlando]

@Sheila Garcia I can say first hand that Cleveland is a great place to invest! Tends to be more landlord friendly (and there's some sub-markets of CLE that are even more-so landlord friendly). At the end of the day, it's really knowing where to be / where not to be which of course depends on the type of product you're looking for and return metrics. I own about 140 units here currently (mix between larger apartments, small multis and single family rentals, and will continue to build my portfolio here long term. 

[Sheila Garcia]

thanks

[Sheila Garcia]

Thats great I want to expand my portfolio to see what's possible and what sense in this current market. Thank you for the info

[Sheila Garcia]

Thank you.

[Sheila Garcia]

Quote from @Bob Stevens:

Quote from @Sheila Garcia:

looking to invest in Cleveland Ohio, my concern is I'm from Florida and it's a long-distance investment any advice on areas to invest on and property management team to hire, I haven't been to the area is it a tenant friendly or landlord. Thank you

 Simple , connect with someone that provides rentals 100% hands off for out of state investors,,, 

Good luck 

Oh but you will need to be cash to get the great deals, 

[Sheila Garcia]

Thanks

[Bob Stevens]

Quote from @Sheila Garcia:

looking to invest in Cleveland Ohio, my concern is I'm from Florida and it's a long-distance investment any advice on areas to invest on and property management team to hire, I haven't been to the area is it a tenant friendly or landlord. Thank you

 Simply connect with those that provide rental properties, allow them to handle it all for you 

[Eliott Elias]

Get on the phone with 5 different property managers and voice every concern you have. They have a unique outlook on the market and can first hand tell you what kind of tenants you will be dealing with 

[Sheila Garcia]

thank you

[Nicholas Salman]

Quote from @Sheila Garcia:

looking to invest in Cleveland Ohio, my concern is I'm from Florida and it's a long-distance investment any advice on areas to invest on and property management team to hire, I haven't been to the area is it a tenant friendly or landlord. Thank you

 Hey, Sheila!  I love to hear that you are looking to invest in my hometown!  I have a lot of connections and a team of people that will be ready and happy to help in your journey! Let's connect

[George Duchatelier]

Quote from @Sheila Garcia:

looking to invest in Cleveland Ohio, my concern is I'm from Florida and it's a long-distance investment any advice on areas to invest on and property management team to hire, I haven't been to the area is it a tenant friendly or landlord. Thank you

 Im actually in that same position. I live in FL and i have 2 rental properties in OH. I manage the properties myself. I collect the rents and also have a repair guy out there to assist when anything is needed to be fixed. It's pretty easy. I invested in Youngstown and Niles OH

I tried going with a PM team but they didn’t really do a good job in the month i hired them. It may seem impossible but Im doing it! Good luck! 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. 

[Sheila Garcia]

thank you.I surely appreciate all the good advice, I wanted to do short term rentals in cleveland im debating  where to invest, are you familiar with AKron..

[George Duchatelier]

Quote from @Sheila Garcia:

thank you.I surely appreciate all the good advice, I wanted to do short term rentals in cleveland im debating  where to invest, are you familiar with AKron..

I’m not familiar with Akron. Everything for me is based out of north east Ohio.

[Jim Doyle]

This is good news to hear about the landlord friendly state; I went to school in Kent awhile back and still have a good network out there. I'm looking to start out of state investing from WA in Ohio and looking to find an investor friendly realtor and leverage my Ohio network for reccos as well.