All Forum Posts by: Robert Ellis

 Not sure if you got this answered but I have a great all around person that can do most of these things and has done for me and many clients personally that are always looking for new work. They are awesome. 

 hi Pat, sent you a colleague request and forgot to attach a message to it. I can't send you a PM i think until you accept it. I tried to send a few PM companies but it didn't work because of that. 

Regards,

Rob

 Hi Pat, there are quite a few here in town. I would say a lot depends on the price point you are buying in. I think property management personally should be interviewed, just like contractors. Some property managers are great in a lower price point, some (even some from this site) that I've met with won't even manage below a certain rental amount per month (Say $500 per month minimum). I might be able to give you a few suggestions depending on where you are looking around Columbus. 

For the University District Area near Ohio State I'd look at Buckeye Real Estate or Northsteppe. Both have 1000s of units they own / manage. We have clients that use both and are happy with them. 

@John Cohen owns a larger complex in town and he mentioned to us that he just switched management and is happy with them. John, any suggestions based on your current experience?

I'll be careful not to give my opinion of certain property management companies, including some that are on Biggerpockets and are quite active. I have a very different opinion on management but I think most of them in town are lazy. I always recommend interviewing them and having more than 1 at a time. Having 2 working against each other was a suggestion from one of the Biggerpockets podcasts. I forget which one but one of the property owners had 3 managers he was testing at any one point. I'll private message you a few that I think are great. Hope this helps!

 Hi Patrick, for Columbus we have used a few people for various real estate matters at The Holfinger Stevenson Law Firm, they also have a title company that helps us a lot called Northwest Title here in town. Their focus is real estate and they are pretty reasonable. Most the time they are willing to look at what you want before they actually bill you. Anyone there is great. They even do residential contract review for some real estate buyers. 

 Zach, you got it spot on. This building is in an area called Schumacher place, nearby German Village and downtown Columbus. The big question with something like this is how much can you push the rents. Even though rents are low and they want a premium for it, is it a good deal or can I make it a good deal is the right question for this one. 

I think you are doing a good job to analyze deals before you take action on something. This is very close to Parsons which is the line a lot people (including residential buyers) use of whether to buy a home or property or not. Put this building on the other side of Parsons and you'd never see it priced in the millions. 

I'd love to sit down and talk strategy with you and see what your investment plan / goals are. You are smart to start with larger multifamily. As they say in the biggerpockets podcasts, it's the same to buy a 2 unit as it is a 10 unit!

 Hi Zach, Columbus is a great market to invest. We have over 60 zip codes, 9 counties, etc. Each one offers different investment criteria and returns. One thing I did right when I started was found out the minimum return I was willing to accept. Then I looked at all 60 zip codes and analyzed the lease price per square foot and cost per square foot and worked backwards to find out several zip codes to watch for multifamily properties. There are over 300 multi family properties available right now in Central ohio and it's easy to get lost in one of them, but as soon as you set your criteria, like adam mentioned, it becomes very easy to focus. 

There are areas of town where you can buy just for cash flow. To answer some of your questions. "good neighborhoods", the class A school districts where parents want to send the children to school you won't find a lot of great deals. If you do, you just have to be ready to make a move quickly. The areas where you are looking for cash flow are different than that and are normally blue collar or transitioning areas. I've been networking with wholesalers for 2 years and we've had one apartment building brought to us and it was in Newark. There are a lot better ways to find deals. It is absolutely possible to find a great deal online. 

There are a lot of great teams here in town, including some that have commented on the post that I would recommend you talk to. Interview them all, ask them what they have been leasing units for, etc. A lot of property managers in town are lazy and don't actually get market rents. Our team places tenants at the highest rents possible. Make sure you talk to several people before you make a decision. I'd love to sit down for coffee to network and see what your investment strategy is. Hope this helps!

 Welcome Cordell! What kind of investing strategy are you focused on for your first few deals? What are of columbus are you focused on? always great to connect with other local biggerpockets members. Have you made it to any of the local investor meetings?

 Hi Mark, 

I would encourage you to be very active on the forums, setup an alert for the columbus area every time a new comment comes up look who is making posts. Try to make it to the COREE meeting and dublin landlord meeting (both 2 great meetups) as well as any other local biggerpockets meetups. Sit down with one new wholesaler per week for the first few months until you've networked with all of them and can't find any new ones (tough because i keep finding new ones every week). I can recommend a few if you want some help. I'm also local and hope to see you around!

 That's a great area. I got killed by capital gains on this one but I use the money right away to grow my business. It was in Italian Village near downtown Columbus. It's right by the Short North if you are familiar with the area. 

 I would agree with you. The other part was that it was much smaller. I went to one about 2 years ago and liked it, I should probably give it another shot. For the price though, I'd join COREE. Each CPIA meeting last time I checked was $10 per meeting per person. Is that still the case? I liked that the organizer did live calls and was open for questions though.