All Forum Posts by: Andrew Duna

Quote from @Abi Horton:

Quote from @Andrew Duna:

Hi Hanna - here is the rough breakdown if you are looking for solid returns on a long term buy and hold investment.

The majority of the bread and butter of CLE RE investing is on the west side. Take a look at the 44111 zip code and that will give you a great idea of the "epicenter" of the solid areas to invest in. Here are the main neighborhoods that you would want to consider investing: Detroit Shoreway, Cudell, West Boulevard, Jefferson, Bellaire-Puritas, Brooklyn and Old Brooklyn. All of these neighborhoods are labeled on google maps. These are all C/C+ class areas. With Old Brooklyn being the most desirable and having the best chance at future appreciation. 

If you wanted to get into a little bit of a higher end neighborhood then consider Lakewood. It's a mix between B/A class. The rent to price ratio here almost matches the RTP ratio of the C class areas but the main trade off you experience with access to better tenants is that the taxes are higher. 

As Shane mentioned- There is also the "Heights Belt" - Garfield + Maple + Warrensville Heights that essentially always have a decent single family property to pick up. You won't find multifamily properties and the houses are generally smaller (which is great for lower maintenance cost).  

I am an investor focused agent here in Cleveland and would love to help you find a solid property to consider investing in! I also have all the resources and referrals you might need in order to make and maintain your investment

 You said “you won’t find multi family in the Heights Belt”, I am considering the shaker heights area, looking at multi family for MTR around Lomond, any advice on that? 

Hi Abi - good point to clarify on my end - so Shaker Heights is separate from the "Heights Belt". The Heights belt I am referencing is strictly the more South/Southeast area (Garfield, Maple, Warrensville Heights)

You can definitely find some solid multifamily in the Shaker Heights area. The only thing to consider there is that the taxes are quite high - with that being a trade-off for access to better tenants. 

Hi Hanna - here is the rough breakdown if you are looking for solid returns on a long term buy and hold investment.

The majority of the bread and butter of CLE RE investing is on the west side. Take a look at the 44111 zip code and that will give you a great idea of the "epicenter" of the solid areas to invest in. Here are the main neighborhoods that you would want to consider investing: Detroit Shoreway, Cudell, West Boulevard, Jefferson, Bellaire-Puritas, Brooklyn and Old Brooklyn. All of these neighborhoods are labeled on google maps. These are all C/C+ class areas. With Old Brooklyn being the most desirable and having the best chance at future appreciation. 

If you wanted to get into a little bit of a higher end neighborhood then consider Lakewood. It's a mix between B/A class. The rent to price ratio here almost matches the RTP ratio of the C class areas but the main trade off you experience with access to better tenants is that the taxes are higher. 

As Shane mentioned- There is also the "Heights Belt" - Garfield + Maple + Warrensville Heights that essentially always have a decent single family property to pick up. You won't find multifamily properties and the houses are generally smaller (which is great for lower maintenance cost).  

I am an investor focused agent here in Cleveland and would love to help you find a solid property to consider investing in! I also have all the resources and referrals you might need in order to make and maintain your investment

Quote from @Brian DeLuca:

Quote from @Andrew Duna:

Hi Thomas! Congrats on the first house hack! As I'm sure you're familiar - after you spend 1 year in your current duplex you become eligible again for primary residence financing (5% down). I think Steve recommended a very fair strategy of living on a budget but I personally do not want to ever live frugally, In my opinion it's just not worth it. (If possible) I would recommend finding ways to make more money by starting up some sort of side hustle or service in order to stack extra cash for your next down payment. 

I'm not sure what your buying strategy was for your first duplex but if you completed some home-reno and added some equity then you can also utilize a home equity line (HELOC) against the first duplex for your next down payment (it would just be counted in your DTI when qualifying). This way you can start building the equity in your next property and utilize that 5% down loan again as quickly as possible.

Where is this 5% downpayment loan? Is a fha?

Hi Brian - this is a owner occupied conventional loan. FHA is 3.5% down

Hi Thomas! Congrats on the first house hack! As I'm sure you're familiar - after you spend 1 year in your current duplex you become eligible again for primary residence financing (5% down). I think Steve recommended a very fair strategy of living on a budget but I personally do not want to ever live frugally, In my opinion it's just not worth it. (If possible) I would recommend finding ways to make more money by starting up some sort of side hustle or service in order to stack extra cash for your next down payment. 

I'm not sure what your buying strategy was for your first duplex but if you completed some home-reno and added some equity then you can also utilize a home equity line (HELOC) against the first duplex for your next down payment (it would just be counted in your DTI when qualifying). This way you can start building the equity in your next property and utilize that 5% down loan again as quickly as possible.

Hi Oscar- Congratulations on graduating to become a Doctor! I think it makes a lot of sense to go big (and hopefully never go home) as long as you have a team in place that you can trust. At the end of the day real estate is quite simple and obviously benefits from economies of scale! 

Really the main thing that you want to focus on in the beginning is being able to run your numbers realistically as there are plenty of sellers who are asking for way more than it makes sense to purchase the property for. I have some experience with this as I am part of a team that has purchased 250 units of multifamily in the past 3 years. In general the underwriting is quite simple and I'd be happy to share my thoughts and resources for that. 

The main play I would always recommend is going for a property that could use some cosmetic renovation in order to bump the rents- that is of course how you gain the best roi and build some serious wealth. 

I am an investor focused agent here and my team will very frequently have larger off market multifamily deals available. With that being said -- another piece I would add is that owners seem to prefer selling off market because they don't want their tenants knowing about the sale... among other typical reasons. So it's definitely important to get plugged into that side of things through networking. Wishing you all the best in your journey!

Hi Ryan- I would second what Mr @James Wise mentioned. This property is not in an area that I would recommend investing in. You could very easily purchase a good property in a typical C class area with that $131.5k. Even if you lose your earnest money --- I would recommend you get out of this contract as fast as you can... and definitely do not take the advice of whoever gave the green-light on this one. If you are looking for good advice then check out the Holton-Wise property group youtube channel. I would be more than happy to help place offers as well since I am investor focused agent here in Cleveland and like to think I have some integrity and at least enough market knowledge to not recommend an area like this. 

Hi Molly - I am an investor focused agent here in Cleveland and would love to meetup to share my resources and referrals!   

Hi Thomas- Depends on what you classify as "better". If by "better" you mean a better return then take a look at the 44111 zip code as well as: Cudell and Bellaire-Puritas. This is where a lot of your classic cheaper Cleveland cashflow properties reside. 

If by "better" you meant better areas then Lakewood, Edgewater and Kamm's Corner are going to be your "higher" end rental markets with Old Brooklyn being right in the middle.

Old Brooklyn is an area that comes in right between the two as a really solid area with access to great tenants. 

BRRRRing properly relies on good comps and it's often difficult to find renovated comps for properties in the 44111+ Cudell + Bellaire Puritas area. So I personally recommend BRRRRing in an area where your renovation dollars go a lot further and you can be more confident in your ARV such as the Old Brooklyn + Lakewood + Edgewater areas.

Hi Keivan - just wanted to touch base. My team - Premier Cleveland Investing - has specialized in helping investors navigate the Cleveland market for the past 5 years. I would love to connect you with the resources and referrals we've built up and vetted that will allow you to make and maintain a successful investment here in CLE. 

Hi Tyler! In my opinion.. the best thing any hungry, dedicated and consistent young person can do is get into sales because you can take that risk of trading your time for money without worrying about massive overhead or feeding a family. Then you eventually get good enough to support a family and you don't have any exhausting corporate ladder determining your income and future. Plus if you become an agent then you are constantly surrounded and immersed in the world of real estate and it isn't just a side project whenever you have extra time. Also this way you are essentially getting paid to learn about an industry you are sincerely interested in. 

Otherwise I wanted to mention that I know of an investor with 20 or so doors who is looking to bring on someone to mentor. I had him on my podcast "Invest Midwest" - his name is Dave Barnett. Maybe consider listening to the episode (spotify, apple podcasts) and see if you would see yourself being a good fit. If you are interested I'll leave it up to you to take the initiative to reach out to me and I'd be more than happy to make the introduction.