All Forum Posts by: John Lenhart
John Lenhart has started 4 posts and replied 251 times.
Post: Appealing to property tax increase
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
I PM'd you. it would be easier to answer your questions over that manner
Post: Appealing to property tax increase
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
Originally posted by @Aaron W.:
@John Lenhart
Thank you for the great insight! What do you recommend we have prepared as evidence for the hearing?
@aj - it depends on your situation. Did you just purchase the property or have you held it for a few years and the county significantly raised the rates on you?
My strategy would be different depending on how recent you purchased the property
Post: Appealing to property tax increase
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
I have done multiple appeals in Montgomery County. In general, the school board has the right to get involved if the reduction in property value is greater than $50k. School boards, especially in more urban districts are very aggressive looking for tax dollars.
The school board attorney is just another party to the hearing. Typically, the county will have their people speak as to the value of the property, you will obviously be able to present your case, and then the school board will be able to present a 3rd opinion of value.
Your set of facts surrounding your property tax valuation will determine your success. The biggest advantage that you have as the property owner is that you have the ability to present information to the other parties about the property that they cannot ascertain on their own.
In general, Montgomery County is a bit more aggressive than other counties however, if you have good facts regarding your valuation, you will likely win, or at least get some type of relief.
Post: Dayton/ Cincinnati Ohio Brokers
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
Try steve Turman with ipa
Greg Vollman
Or Jordan Dickman with Marcus and Millichap
Post: Self Storage- To Uhaul or Not
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
We do Uhaul at our larger locations where we have a full time management presence. It is a no brained there and it does not cost anything to operate at those locations. It generates over $1000k in income a month at these locations and is a good source of leads
The smaller remote locations does not work so well with Uhaul.
Post: Self storage financing terms these days?
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
Have you looked at a life insurance loan?
Post: Self storage as a 1031 option
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
If you want a crash course in self storage check out Scott Myers courses
Post: CMBS Lender Recommendations... Multifamily
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
I work with a few people out of their Cincinnati office, but they have regional offices all over the country. I can private message you a name and you can start with him. Another company have used in the past is North Marq I will send you their information to
Post: CMBS Lender Recommendations... Multifamily
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
Bellwether Enterprise is a good lender to work with
Post: Self Storage Kiosks and Payment Processing (ACH & CC Options)
- Rental Property Investor
- Cincinnati, OH
- Posts 258
- Votes 207
Originally posted by @Weina Shi:
Originally posted by @John Lenhart:
We have kiosks at 2 locations. One is remote, the other is a busy location. At the busy location, it helps with payments of after hours customers who do not like to use the internet and prefer to pay in person.
The other location is a remote location we installed a year ago.
Neither of these are a magic bullet and they do not take the place of physical visits or having a site manager at a larger facility or weekly visits to the remote facility. It definitely takes a while for people to become accustomed to the kiosk. You will have low implementation at the beginning but it will grow over time. The kiosk will never become more popular than those who pay via autopay or over the phone so remember to always have those options. I do feel that the kiosk provides value but the ROI is not a ton more than the monthly cost.
When deciding on if the kiosk is right for you I would ask:
1) how big is the facility? Do you want to run it remotely or is there a site manager. The kiosk can help during busy days and also times where the manager is disposed from the office.
2) What are the demographics ? Does your facility take a lot of cash? is the clientele older? Do most pay in person? - We have a couple of facilities where they were a bit heavier in cash payments and also had a population that liked to pay in person at the facility. The kiosk made sense in these cases. If you have a facility that is in a more affluent area, has a clientele that is pretty internet savvy and pays online or autopay, and pays via cc or ACH; I think there are less expensive options than the kiosk. Many of the management systems offer Apps to the customer to allow the customer to pay online and even waive their phone in front of a gate sensor for access. These options can be more cost effective than the kiosk. The downside, they cannot take cash if you have a lot of cash payers or if you have a crowd that is not internet savvy.
I would prefer some automation and run the facility remotely with a family member to help a few times per week. Perhaps I should try to run the facility and then decide to determine the needs. Thanks for your input.
One thing about kiosks, one of our facilities was part of a crime ring where people were renting after hours at the kiosk and paying the nominal fee, never moving in the unit, getting access to the facility after hours and then breaking in units. Something to monitor if you have a kiosk and may be wise to limit some access hours on the kiosk