All Forum Posts by: Robert Ellis

Hello all, I’m going to be in Columbus Dec 5-12 and am looking for a couple houses. I would like to meet with some local wholesalers and maybe we can have lunch or look at a couple properties. looking forward to meeting some locals

Hello, 

My wife and I will like to have a do over. After years of her telling me that we should focus on investing in real estate as Buy & Hold investors, I have finally come to my senses. Our first property is a Duplex brought in Columbus, Ohio back in 2011/12 and our second one was brought in Darby, PA two years after. In between that time, we also brought a 2 family home in Brooklyn, NY as our primary resident.

Our duplex property in Ohio came with one unit ready for tenant and the other needing complete rehab. The first mistake I made was renting the ready unit to my sister. We never got rent on time, got hit with the units being poorly manage, and no income or cash-flow to rehab the other unit. After 4 years of back and forth with my sister, she finally moved out. So we are currently in the process of a completed rehab of both units. We hope to have it done for $20,000.(Our contractor thinks this is too little). 

Not realizing that family and business don't mix, I also rented the Darby unit to my other sister. this one on the other hand treats it like her own, but with low rent being collected, there's just about $100 or less in cash-flow with the high taxes or multiple taxes from city and county in that area. 

And yes, it is really I who need a do over, because I was the one making most of those decisions at the time and having my wife fight with the tenant (I meant my sister).

So this is where we are at. I am religiously reading on BP and listening to Podcast. At the same time, I am reading Brandon Turner book, The Book on rental Property Investing: How to create Wealth and Passive Income Through Smart Buy & Hold real Estate Investing.

To make long story short, we will like to purchase our third property in the Philadelphia area. We need help and is reaching out to you guys (gals) for any information that will make this round a success. Our goal for the year 2018, is to purchase 5 units in the Philadelphia for Buy & Hold investment.

Thank you.

Background: I house hacked a property located in Silver Spring, MD. I purchased the property three years ago (04/2014) for $289,000 with FHA loan and PMI in it. In 02/2016 I refinanced the loan to 15 years at 3.12500% rate and switched it to a conventional loan; avoid paying PMI and take advantage of the low interest rate for 15years amortization. Currently, the principal on the property is 256,507 and the payment on it is $2,285 . Back in May 2017 I purchased another town house in a good schooling zone for my growing family (my wife and 2 kids) with $357K, 30 years and 4.75 rate. I rented out the first property 2500 including utility (as of now no cash flow, but property is appertaining estimated value 382,000 based on Zillow and other open sources).

Objective: I am really interested increasing my rental property portfolio reaching certain amount of cash flow. The option that I see in achieving my goal is first, trying to use Airbnb get more cash flow on the first house as soon as the current lease expires (since the property cannot be rented more that the current amount). Second, I am trying to get LOC from my first house and get rental units. However, the LOC amount may not be more than 50K and don't have money saved that I can use. Based on the market, the LOC won't get me the rental units that I planned in state of Md, DC or VA so I may have to invest in a different sate.

So, based my situation and plan does anyone see any other route or strategy in getting more rental property? Which state may be suitable to invest the LOC? (Coulombs, OH and Michigan City, IN are in my mind)

Hey Columbus Investors,

After months of educating ourselves, reading books, listening to podcasts and researching we finally took the plunge into real estate investing! My wife spent some time in Columbus Ohio and ended up purchasing 3 single family homes in some of the working class neighborhoods, now the work begins. 2 of the homes already have tenants in place, I wanted to ask if anyone had recommendations for a Property manager, handyman, contractor, housecleaning services, etc. for the one that is vacant? We live in California so need to put together a team there. We could use a combination of Yelp and Angie’s list but wanted to ask for recommendations here as well. Thanks in advance.

Hey All,

So I live in southern California but am interested in potentially investing in Columbus, OH / the surrounding areas and with that, I need some help finding the A class team.

Does anyone have recommendations on PM/real estate agents they personally use? 

Thanks!

I have spent the past couple months reading about real estate investing and can't wait to get started. However, we have been debating how we should obtain our first rental property. My wife and I planning on moving to Columbus, OH at the end of January, I was recently approved to work remote. We both are from Ohio (Cincinnati & Dayton) and are fairly familiar with Columbus, but have close friends and family who live in the city that can provide location advice. So we have been debating a couple options,

1) Buy condo/townhouse (possibly without FHA) and then buy single family residence with FHA, move into the SFR and rent the condo

2) Rent apartment, then search for a multi-family to buy and house hack

3) Buy single family home and delay buying a rental due to save up for down payment

I would love to hear any advice or opinions on the options listed above (or any others) as well as, purchasing a property on a short time frame, and using a FHA loan on the second property instead of the first. Thank you in advance!

Does anyone have an opinion on which market would be better for starting out on a house hack? For the past year I have been looking on the MLS in Phoenix for a multifamily to house hack with little to no luck with good deals. There are not many multifamily properties on the market today in Phoenix.

On the other hand - Columbus Ohio(where I am originally from) has many duplexes on the MLS in better areas than in Phoenix and are about the same price.

After doing a quick and dirty analysis on a few properties - comparing Phoenix to Columbus it seems like Columbus has better numbers on Duplexes. 

Would you agree?

For people that are finding rentals that cash flow for under $150k, are you finding anything better than 1% deals in B or C class areas?

I'm struggling to find deals between $80-120k that cash flow that are getting better than 10% return on cash. Curious to see if others are having better luck

Yes, check out Columbus. 

Can anyone recommend a good agent familiar with the Columbus area and REI? Looking for buy and hold SFH or small MFH. Thanks!!

I have a great time finding properties I cannot fund in Central Ohio that produce a cash on cash return near 20% or greater.  I have one now in Columbus OH, Franklin County that has a cash on cash return of 20% and a monthly net income of $3,400 from 20 units.  The property is situated in a high growth area with a recently built casino that is providing a high potential of tenants.  The property has recently been renovated so there should be no costs for upgrade.  Tenants pay all utilities.  The asking price is $875,000 but I think we need to offer $900,000.  Contact me  via private message if you wish to be a 50/50 partner where you provide the funds and I provide the management.