All Forum Posts by: Paul Sian

There are a number of different factors at play here.  Interest rates make what once was a good price now look too high.  Schools are getting back in session so that slows down things somewhat.  

While I may have an east side bias, locally in my circles Northside was never really talked up.   It is a neat place but the people I talk too are more interested in Westwood, Cheviot, and similar neighborhoods further west.  

Those who wanted to buy have bought the rest probably were never looking seriously in the first place.  

Usually after any frenzy of activity things do have to slow down to allow the system to catch up.  

Kevin is referring to Finney Law Firm who also owns Ivy Pointe Title LLC. I am an attorney with that firm.

I have had a somewhat similar situation where the tenant who was supposed to put the trash out failed to at one time and all the cans were overloaded.  I happen to be headed to building when one of the tenants called me to complain the trash was not put out on trash day and was overloaded due to another tenant trash out.  As I got there I saw that the trash truck had just left so I called the city to ask if they would be able to come back.  The city said not today but they would come back in a couple of days.  I did specifically ask the city person on the phone whether I should put the trash cans out now or wait for the day they were coming back.  The person on the phone said put it out now, which I did.  

Of course trash service did eventually come to pick it up a few days later but meanwhile some neighbor complained about trash being out on a non-trash day so they issued a citation to the building owner (me).  In my mind I did exactly what the city person told me to do and I would not have put it out if they said wait until the day they come back.  It was around a $150 dollar fine and I did contest it and ultimately won.  When I went to the admin hearing officer I explained what happened, why it happened and asked for dismissing the citation since the City employee told me I should put it out that day.

The Admin Hearing Officer did not respond that day to my request but said he would send a response via email.  Ultimate response was they did dismiss the citation and drop the fine.  So I was happy with that.

That being said and back to your facts @Michael Hooper I think you can claim the $600 from the security deposit because they left trash out.  The trash is probably gone by now but if there were items known to be theirs (stuff with their name on it) that could show it was theirs if you had pictures.  Also they were the only ones to have moved out at that time so it would make more sense it belonged to them.

You could also appeal the citation by stating it was tenants who left trash out in violation of the lease terms.  Ask the other tenant if they would provide a statement that they did not put the trash out and if they saw the other tenant do it then even better.  Yes it is a he said, she said type of story.  Tenants will claim all sorts of things to get out of paying does not mean the judge will buy it.  Especially if the facts with their moving were not favorable to them.    

Welcome to the world of RE investing!  Make sure you study up and build up reliable teams ahead of time so everything is in place when you get your first property.

Foundation Specialists LL

Cincinnati can vary quite a bit street to street. There are some decent parts of Avondale where you can get good tenants and some parts where you better have a great PM in place to manage tenants for you otherwise things can get away from you quickly. What are your investing goals? What types of areas (grades A-D)? What type of ROI? With as many rentals units here in Cincinnati as there are I don't think you will have problems finding tenants assuming the rent is market rate.

Definitely need to visit any place you are investing in remotely just to get a lay of the land.  Cincinnati even more so since it can vary street to street and has a lot of multifamily buildings to choose from.  Build your team as well as while there is plenty of investment activity going on here everything else is lagging behind.  Contractors and PMs can be hard to come by.  Contractors are very busy and the honest ones will tell you to stand in lines.  Others may try and working multiple jobs at once hoping for easy money but eventually it catches up with them and then unfortunately with the ones they are working for too.  I cannot emphasize strongly enough, have your team in place beforehand!

@Maribel Alvarado

This situation was poorly handled by your agent and the title company.  As others mentioned the title company is responsible for reading the contract and making sure monies are properly credited.  It did not seem like your agent either was aware of the terms of the contract.  

The seller may think they walked away with free money but the contract says otherwise and he could be held to account as well in court.  

I would recommend talking to the agent’s broker and see if they are willing to remedy the situation. Especially with no keys, no rent rolls, no leases?  You will be facing expenses to rekey the building so you have a master key.  You may want to mention to the seller at least provide the keys and leases and you could consider looking the other way for the rent money depending on how much it was. 

Also the title companies generally have both parties sign statements during closing which state that both buyer and seller agree to work with the title company to fix any errors.  This is a big error that needs to be fixed.  Title companies in Ohio are generally run and owned by attorneys.  I would be looking up the attorney who owns the title company who closed your deal and have them fix it ASAP otherwise there is liability issues for them.  Not just on the title company side but also you could complain about the attorneys failure to properly oversee this closing which as a closing officer they sign off on all closings. 

Feel free to PM me if you need some more guidance.  

Welcome to the wild world of real estate investing.  Ok maybe not that wild so long as you keep it that way.  House hacking a duplex is a great way to start building your portfolio up!

Agree with the others that the existing leases stand.  I would ask your title company to make sure lease transfer documents are done or transfer the lease to your name or company name in the event you need to enforce lease terms against the tenants the leases are already in your name.