Clinton OH??? (Cleveland, Akron, Portage Lakes: appointed, for sale, real estate)

[Byzantine]

Hello all,

I wanted to see if you guys can shed any light on Clinton OH? I can't really find anything on it, accept the city data statistics look good. Low crime, slightly higher than average income.

I know it's a small town, one guy told me there is a bar, and a drive-thru, that's about it.

For those that have been through there, how long does it take to get to Cleveland from there, and to Akron from there? We would be going to church in one of those cities (we are Melkite Catholic).

You see, we need a large property, both for the online giftshop/bookstore we run St. Joseph School for Boys Bookstore and the 5 boys in the household. With a like $110,000 price limit, with 4000+SF. The property we are looking at is like 5000+SF on 2.5 acres. Only thing I am worried about is lack of people in the small town, and us boys making friends. They are also homeschooled.

Oh, and the reason we are trying to move from WNY, painfully high taxes, certainly in any of the low crime areas, picky neighbors, basements flooding with raw sewage when we get heavy rain. And we are tired of getting complaints from the village, ranging from we are not allowed to park our car on the concrete pad in front of our house, to when a bird flew through out attic window and we didn't fix it immediatly (we had plywood over it) getting fined for that.

I am 17, and one of those 5 boys. I can certainly move back here if I wanted, I have friends here. But I want my family to be in a good place, and if I did move back here, it certainly would not be the worst drive to visit my folks, although with Lake Erie snow, it might make winter driving a pain in the...

Thanks,
Claude

[Clevelander17]

I know nothing about the place, in fact I hadn't heard of it until now. But on the map it looks like it's close to Akron, probably no more than 15-20 minute drive to downtown. It's probably a bit longer drive into Cleveland, somewhere around 35-45 minutes depending on how close you are to the freeway. Other than that, I don't know how much more I can tell you because I don't know about that specific township.

[NewToCA]

Looks like a really small town, only about 1,500 people total in the area. The driving times that Clevelander17 posted appear to be pretty accurate, but you may add another 10-15 minutes depending upon where you go in those two large cities.

I saw the property you are considering at the on-line real estate site. I'd be a little concerned with why it is for sale for so much less than it sold for just a year ago, and that steep property tax bill (over $6,000 per year). Hopefully you get the full and accurate story here, I see some red flags...

[Byzantine]

Thanks guys!

I can explain some of your concerns NTC (which I appreciate BTW).

First, builder bought it in 05 for $54,000 in 06 it was sold to his business (how do we know this? his name is in the business name it was sold to) but for some reason he sold it to himself for $235,000 (why we don't know, if I was scamming the system for lower taxes, I would sell it to myself at a low price) and in 06 part of it was remodeled.

It was foreclosed upon in 08, we assume the old selling price is what he tried to get for it, we found the old MLS listing. But he lost the property, when bank received it, it was valued at $160,000. And of course being bank they do not argue the value, so it has went up to $233,000 appraised value.

There are still some questions un-answered. Hopefully some will be answered tomorrow (Realtor was suppose to have looked at it yesterday, but we have not heard from him). Like what the condition of the property is overall. But we found out today, that it might need a new septic system. Since they show that nothing has been done since 1960 Perhaps that's why it has not sold?

And I think those taxes are based on the $233,000 apraised value. I called the treasurers office, got transfered a half dozen time, and I got to someone who could read the tax info to me, and estimate what it would be if we bought it for $80,000. About $1500 a year, we can handle that And that does not include a homestead exemption (she did not know how to enter that in).

Again, thanks guys hopefully I will be visiting the Buckeye state soon, last time I was there we were just driving through, and it was 6 years ago in the winter. We've always drove through Canada to get to our midwest destinations (Michigan and Illinois).

[htlong]

clinton is a great place to live its rural with stores to far to walk but minutes by car,you could be on rt 21 to cleveland in aBOUT 45 MIN. akron in 15 .
I moved back to the area last year but cant handle the winter so I snow birded it to fl. but if your from wny ,clinton will be like fl to you.
all in all you will enjoy the summer with the portage lakes right next to you there is plenty to do, go to akron on friday nights they have free concerts at lock 3 park downtown

[newmex]

Originally Posted by htlong

clinton is a great place to live its rural with stores to far to walk but minutes by car,you could be on rt 21 to cleveland in aBOUT 45 MIN. akron in 15 .
I moved back to the area last year but cant handle the winter so I snow birded it to fl. but if your from wny ,clinton will be like fl to you.
all in all you will enjoy the summer with the portage lakes right next to you there is plenty to do, go to akron on friday nights they have free concerts at lock 3 park downtown

Also "Downtown At Dusk" every Thursday next to the art museum in the summer.

Towpath trail in Akron to Peninsula to points north is nice

[DJ Easy B]

I currently live in Clinton. It is a great town with extremely nice people. I just moved here in June 2007 with my girlfriend and 2 young songs (both under 3 years old). There is virtually no crime and there are plenty of people in your age range in near by areas. You are about dead center between 3 malls, all of which are about 20 minutes away (Chapel Hill Mall, Summit Mall, and Belden Village Mall). The street department does an excellent job of keeping the streets clear in the winter so travel is no problem on those nasty winter mornings. The town loves its athletic teams so if you like baseball, football, basketball, ect., Manchester High School always fields good competitive teams which the teenagers love to go watch. In the summer time you are 5-10 minutes from Portage Lakes so if you like to go boating or fishing or whatever it is also very close by. Rest assured if you move to Clinton, you and your family will not be disappointed.

[rich crabtree]

im from a town called massillon, not to far away from clinton. my dad and his brothers grew up there, mined you it was back in 1950 and 60 s, i still have a lot of pepole over that way and there happy they have never moved. and all that u have read here is true so far

[colbype]

I lived in Clinton for 3 years and my grandmother lived there since the 1950's. It really has nothing in the town but a bar and churches. I use to joke you are either an alcoholic or churchy . Most of the people that live there have been there for a long time or their family has been. Crime is not much of a problem except in the Warwick area where you have young kids that can be bad. Nothing worse then any other place though.

21 is right there so you can get the Browns stadium in about 45 minutes. Property is very low there as 30% of the houses are getting forclosed on.

Only part I can say watch out is if you are in the Warwick area (4th or 5th street area) that people will pump the septic talk in the yard and the mayor will not do a thing about it.

ANy other questions let me know as I still visit there a couple times a year and wifes parents still live there close to the Manchester side.