All Forum Posts by: Gwen Fyfe

Just in case anyone needs any more convincing that Cleveland is the up and coming hipster utopia - last night I went to a craft beer industry event, held at an urban art space on the west side. The munchies provided included locally baked artisan donuts which used the local beers and coffees in the icings. I don't think I saw one beardless man in the whole place. It was almost as good as the beard competition I went to at a rock hall here a couple months ago.

I can't decide if I'm hung over from the beer or the sugar. Either way, off to view another duplex this afternoon...

@Account Closed Thanks! I definitely think it's a good area for the price. It's a really solid blue-collar town. There are no POS requirements right now - a couple people had a legal dispute with the city over them and Bedford responded by completely suspending all POS about a year ago. They might come back in the future but there's a big push to make them external only.

Tenant market is solid but not rich. There are lots of service jobs around - my tenants work in restaurants, grocery stores, the casino. Bedford is also easy commuting distance to a lot of richer suburbs with professional jobs (I work as an accountant over in Solon!) Not a lot of crime. Just good folks living their lives.

@Jeff Brower I did! Someone else had an offer accepted on it, but their financing fell through and I snapped it up hours after it went back on the MLS. We were concerned about the commercial zoning too, but it turned out fine: the bank's appraisal confirmed that if the property burned to the ground I would have 1 year to rebuild before it lost it's grandfathering. Wells Fargo was happy with that.

I love the house. My cat loves it even more, it's so full of cool little shelves. I'm having a good time tearing up the 1960s carpet.

I would definitely agree that Cleveland is on this list. I mean, I moved here - and I'm the huge-glasses, flannel-shirt, craft-beer millennial. I picked Cleveland over returning to NYC or going out to the pacific northwest, and I'm very happy with my choice. There's plenty of awesome stuff going on and more opening up every day.

When I moved to Cleveland after being kicked out of Scotland, my NYC friends said "It's like you're the protagonist of an indie movie." :)

@Tim Greenfield, if you end up doing this, I'd be interested to know how it works out. I'm trying to find a good plumber to check out my quad and see whether it would be easy to sub-meter.

@Account Closed The duplex is right around the corner from the quad, on Ellenwood avenue in Bedford. I'm actually also looking at another duplex just on the other side of Broadway tomorrow.

I self-manage and house hack the quad, so having everything within 5 minutes walk is perfect for me. Bedford is a nice little town, I was walking around to check out the vacant duplex on my own last night and was perfectly safe. People waving hi from their porches. It's that kind of city. 

@Ian Kurela It's on Broadway Avenue, very close to the Bedford Auto Mile.

Hi Paul -

What neighborhood? Does the property need a lot of work?

Because as others have said, at that price for that many units, it's not likely to be a great location. I bought a 4plex in Cleveland for $125k a few months ago, and I'm very happy with my deal, but it's a solid C neighborhood.

You could get a very solid duplex for that price - I'm closing on a $75k duplex today that I'm excited about - maybe even a triplex. But unless there's some extenuating circumstances I'd be concerned about that deal.

I have a little situation I've been thinking about, and I wondered what the BiggerPockets community thinks.

I recently purchased a quad for my first house-hack, and it's going great. The previous owners were really good landlords and I have had zero problems with my inherited tenants. They're all really nice guys who live quietly and pay their rent on time.

One of them has been living there for upwards of twenty years. He's a good guy, bit of a hippie (so am I), and a little slow (which some would say is also true of me, ha!) I don't know the extent, and maybe I'm making some impolite assumptions, but from talking to him I think he's a little delayed. Independent, obviously, but living in this little efficiency apartment for 20 years and his mom's name is on his checks, that kind of thing.

He also hasn't had a rent increase in five years. His unit is currently sitting at $375, while the other two identical units which have turned over more frequently are renting for $400 and $425. And those prices are already a little below market.

I was planning to raise his rent a little bit, probably to $400. I discussed this with my grandma (my real estate idol and badass matriarch - don't mess with the 90 year old self-managing 5 condos) and she is of the opinion that I should leave the rent where it is as an act of charity. Self-imposed rent control. Because I'm already breaking even on my housing, and my tenant's income isn't likely to change, so that's $25 that wouldn't make much difference to me but may easily be a hardship for him. A big part of my motivation for getting into real estate is using my own lucky position to improve housing equality, so why not start here, right?

In my shoes, what would you do? Where's the balance?

Hm. It's an interesting situation. I'm a resident of Bedford as well as a landlord there, and I have to say, I'm not sure I like the idea of the city refunding a lot of fees. Bedford needs the money. But if it's decided it was illegal to take them, then fair enough.

In my opinion the rental inspection fees are a very fair cost of doing business.

The city council elections for Bedford are coming up in a few months, and bad landlords have definitely been getting a lot of discussion. The leading candidate for my ward, Heather Rhoades, is particularly vehement on wanting to crack down on landlords who have been avoiding spending money in the city and lowering property values by letting properties deteriorate. So maybe we'll see a united front on the issue soon. I'm all for it.