All Forum Posts by: Andrew Weiner

This is something you should discuss make sure to touch base with your CPA or Legal advisor about, personal circumstances and change how to best set things up. Also if you need financing you should make sure you have a lender that will lend on a property owned by an LLC, many banks need properties to be in personal names for financing. Some lenders also will not care if you quit claim the deed into an LLC's name after closing. However if/when you want to refi you may need to move the title back into your name.

@Michael Orlando I only invest in Cleveland so I don’t want to speak to the other cities since I don’t have first had knowledge.  Even if a market is a “good market”, selecting the right neighborhood and property is more important.  I know I’m a broken record but you can buy a money pit in the best market and hit a home run in a less hyped area.  Your local team will need to be experienced investors who can tell you about the immediate area and give you a good idea what kind of deferred maintenance is there.

 The job market is pretty good. Cleveland specifically is big in medicine. I don’t have exact unemployment numbers but anecdotally I don’t hear of many people leaving town because they couldn’t find work.

I am also a very proud Clevelander who very much enjoys the area. It’s got a little bit of everything with out being overwhelming.

Although I am admittedly biased I like Cleveland over Dayton.  Dayton is (I believe) a secondary market, it will tend to be less resilient to economic uncertainty.  It does have a large Air Force base that might be an area to capitalize on.  
In Cleveland there are some very good suburban rental areas.  I like to focus on the better school districts, I feel that they are a draw for better qualified tenants and will hopefully keep tenants in place longer.  The real money to be made or saved is when you buy.  I am seeing a lot of out of state investors buying properties that have good cash flow on paper but significant deferred maintenance.  Reading between the lines of a home inspection is super important since you aren’t on site to get the feel like when you buy locally.  I try to verbally ask my home inspector what his feeling is, he won’t write it down but he sees so many properties and usually has a gut feeling that I think is valuable.  

I have a vacant unit in Garfield Heights right now and once we started marketing it we have had a huge number of section 8 and regular paying showings and a few applications.  For section 8 it would take close to 3 months, our last section 8 tenant took 10 weeks for CMHA to process after we submitted the forms.  I would say for a cash paying tenant it’s 2 weeks to place and maybe 2-4 weeks until move in. Conservatively 4-6 weeks from ready to move in day, many times it’s less but I don’t bank on it.

There are many homes that are older and have been kept in great shape and they are not problematic. There are many that need to be demolished and there is no profitable way to bring them back to life. Getting a home inspection will help you look into those items and you can ask the inspector to try to point out some of those items and give you an idea of cost or longevity. Also make sure to budget for some preventative maintenance (this isn't just for older homes), driveways, roofs, hot water heaters, furnaces, and AC's all go bad even in much newer homes. You can have the sewer reviewed with a camera that will give you insight on one of the more costly plumbing repairs. Also focus on masonry, it gets very expensive and there is no return on investment, driveways, steps, and tuck pointing are the big items for this. With proper due diligence buying older should not be a problem.

There is a big difference between North and South Collinwood in my opinion.  I happen to be a fan of North  Collinwood for single family rentals but less so for doubles.  That being said I wouldn’t turn down a great deal on a double in that area.  

If you are looking for areas you wouldn’t mind living I would recommend Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights, and Lakewood.  Those should be a good start.  There are lots of young professionals in these areas but there are less desirable areas very near by so I would recommend touching base with a local investor/realtor to check on specific properties before putting in offers.

If you buy in cash and there is no bank making the payments you might not get the tax address updated correctly and miss the bills/notices.  Also if someone does fall on hard times and the money isn’t escrowed they might not be able to make those payments.  

I suspect that some small number of owners buy properties at such a low price and just suck out as much cash as possible and then allow the property to get foreclosed.  I saw a property someone bought for $8,000, it has a 30k+ tax bill from over 5 years of missed taxes and it was currently rented out.  I just assume the owner was okay with keeping all that money and losing the property.  These properties don’t usually get listed but I see them when I am prospecting.  

This is a highly subjective and personal question that I think has more to do with your comfort and feelings than an objective numbers response.  That being said If it were me and the interest rates are relatively low on those loans then I would invest.  I can get much better returns and hedge against inflation by buying property today.  Since I finance properties and I am in a higher cashflow/lower it takes a few years before I get much equity so every extra year counts for getting into new properties.