Zoning & Utility Uncertainty - Zoned residential is a good start, but double-check with the city on any restrictions or future zoning plans.

We’re very motivated and have already identified a few distressed properties in Cleveland that we believe could be strong candidates for our first deal.We’d love some input from experienced investors here on a few key things:1) LLC Structure – should we open a Florida-based LLC and register as a foreign entity in Ohio, or simply open an Ohio-based LLC to make things easier with contractors, utilities, and local banks?

I am going to Refi some of my rentals and utilize an Irrevocable trust and an IUL within the trust as well as the Trust owning my LLc’s.

Set aside a realistic operating budget—furnishing, utilities, cleaning, and maintenance all add up.

I've heard the countless stories of house hacking and utilizing the FHA with each new purchase to build a rental portfolio,  but never heard anyone run into this.

In a perfect world I would split utilities and do a full renovation, but for now I'd like to focus on getting a high appraisal and getting my money out of the deal.

During my property search, I found myself using basic excel/google sheet math to analyze my deals because I had to account for room rental income as well as utility costs. 

A burned out street on Zillow is still a burned out street today. 3) Dont believe it when they say your property taxes will be low for 3 years - its a luck of the draw when the city wants to reassess your home and it could be THIS YEAR and cause that $400 to skyrocket to $2,000 or maybe - if you are super unlucky like me - $5000  4) Related to #3 - BUY PRE-RENOVATION not after, so the sales price does not trigger a re-assessment and cause a 522% increase overnight in property taxes from $800 to $5000 within the first year. 5) watch out for SUPER HIGH UTILITIES AND other city FEES!

You have to separate the apples and the oranges and the bananas, as far as if you pull fifteen land sales in a certain area, they can all be so different as far as zoning, topography, utilities, access, regular or irregular parcel shape, drainage, soils, environmental, etc. 

I'd love to discuss how you utilize this tool to secure deals off market.