All Forum Posts by: Patrick Drury

@Nick Lanza
If you are looking in Columbus I recommend areas like Hilltop, Linden, Eastmoor/ Whitehall, and Franklinton. These are areas where you can cash flow in Columbus because the rent-to-price ratio is favorable. Out of these areas, Franklinton and Linden are seeing some of the most developments. With things like the ONE Linden plan in Linden, which is a 50M plan to improve the neighborhood. Of that 50M, 25M was allocated for the construction of a new recreational faculty that has since been completed. Franklinton has been seeing lots of developments like the completion of Gravity Phase 1 and phases 2 and 3 on the way. As well as coffee shops like Bottoms Up Coffee are moving in and small microbreweries like brew dog and Land Grant.

@Alec Jacobs 
It depends on the location. Look at properties up for rent in the neighborhood that are advertising for the rent you are looking to achieve. For example, if you are looking to get $1,000 a month and all the available rentals on Zillow have hardwoods for a comparable-sized property/ unit you would want to add hardwoods. If you plan on doing section 8 LVP is fine. Personally not a fan of carpet, but you might be able to get away with it in the bedrooms. 

@Dirk Singleton
If you are looking in Cleveland I would recommend checking out areas on the West Side of Cleveland like West Blvd, Cudell, Old Brooklyn, Clark Fulton, Edgewater, Jefferson, and Brooklyn Centre. The reason is the rent-to-price ratio is good so you can cash flow, and most of the West side doesn’t have a Point of sale inspection which is really annoying

@Saijal Sindwani
If you have Section 8 rentals out of state get a property manager who is familiar with Section 8 and that market so when things like this come up they will handle it

@Nakul Patel
If you are looking to invest in 2-4 units you'll have to put down 25% if you plan to get a conventional loan. You could get away with 20% down with DSCR the rate will just be a bit higher.

@Adria T.
"Full-service property managers" or Turnkey providers aren't really a thing in Columbus because if you want a deal that makes sense you need to source it yourself off-market to add value and provide it to clients. There are wholesale deals from time to time, but the best ones are not typically sitting around on Facebook. I would focus more on being a PM and providing a better service than becoming a turnkey provider/full-service PM. 

@Gurusubramaniam Sundararaman
A Google Excel sheet should be more then fine for that. 


In terms of taxes, I would look at refinancing down the road and getting a PITI mortgage. Principal, interest, insurance, and taxes. If one rental and your home have you a bit lost just imagine how confusing 30 would be if you didn't escrow taxes. Things can get out of hand pretty quickly.

@Gurusubramaniam Sundararaman
How many properties is it? 

Electric, gas - Where I am at you can link multiple properties to one account this helps if you aren't doing that. If the utility companies are all different like the properties are in different counties you can put all the properties on Google Sheets/Excel and break the pages down by county and list the addresses going horizontally and put the things you are looking to track 

Taxes - is this not built into the loans on the properties? 

@Miguelli Fernandez
I would focus on getting the first rental in Cleveland before setting up an LLC. If you buy the property in an LLC you would have to go DSCR and the rate will be higher than conventional.

@Jason Xenakis
Ask if they own rentals. If they have rentals they are going to be knowledgeable about what it's like investing in Columbus. Also,I would ask if they find off-market deals. Those agents bring more value than just sending you on-market deals that everyone has access to