Turning around Youngstown (sales, townhome, to buy)

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by Art1979

Ok, let's say I'm a representative for the City of Youngstown. My initial questions would be:

- What industry is the business in?
- How many people are you going to employ?
- How large a lot would you use?

I could employ 5 people initially and 10 people within a year, and operate out of 3-4,000 sf... Internet company, which means I can locate my company anywhere.

with 10 people, at $20,000 a year income each, thats $200,000 a year going into the Youngstown economy vs $0....

[CortlandGirl79]

Originally Posted by Nick Papagiorgio

Hello,

I was hoping to get some ideas/opinions from some Youngstown locals on a property my friends and I purchased on Redondo RD in Sep 2007. We did our homework and I came to to town, looked at several and finally settled on a beautiful 4 bedroom home that the owners of 30+ years were selling for a song. Since that time, renting it out has been difficult and the current renters don't pay on time. After our property manager evicts them, we are wondering what our next move should be. We are not looking to make a lot on rent. My concern is that we get reliable renters who take care of the property. Are there any programs, besides section 8, that lease long term? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Jeff

I don't know many responsible people w/good jobs that want to rent in Youngstown. I mean, you're mostly going to get derelicts and college students. I suppose there are some hardworking people w/bad credit that might want to rent there, but who would want to send their kids to the city schools???? I have never considered Redondo a really bad road, but parts of it are shady. I think your best bet would be to rent to some responsible college students, otherwise, good luck! My guess is that people would rather rent in austintown, etc. before they ever rent in Youngstown, sad as it is.

[Art1979]

Originally Posted by pghquest

I could employ 5 people initially and 10 people within a year, and operate out of 3-4,000 sf... Internet company, which means I can locate my company anywhere.

with 10 people, at $20,000 a year income each, thats $200,000 a year going into the Youngstown economy vs $0....

Ok, I can work with this to a degree. Average yearly real estate taxes on a 3,000 to 4,000 is $2,266. I went to the County Auditor's page and had to average a few Youngstown properties on a few assumptions (i.e it had to be in Youngstown, not Boardman or Canfield, it was between 3,000-4,000 square feet, based on last year's sales, etc.) The county does collect these taxes, but remits a portion to the governing body of the assessed area.

10 people at $20,000 gross income per year doesn't translate into $200,000 a year for the City of Youngstown. It translates into $5,500/year for the City of Youngstown ($200,000*.0275). We cannot tell what the employees will do with the other $194,500 (Aside from FIT, FICA, OHIT, etc.). They may buy houses in Boardman, for example, and commute in (or even telecommute?). Overall, this is an x-variable with a great deal of unpredictability. Indeed, the best situation would be for them to rent or pick up property and live in Youngstown proper, but again the speculation is huge. This is under the assumption Boardman, OH is its own body politic, which I'm fairly sure it is.

Another key factor, too, would be to keep you there for as long as it took to get their money's worth. The quick and dirty would be 6.43 years ($50,000/$7,766) and that's with cash flows undiscounted. This is also keeping hiring and firing, raises, bonuses all negligible.

The greatest concern as a steward of public money would be to give the conartist $50,000 and be swindled. Don't worry, I'm more than willing to believe you're on the level and more than able to produce to the levels you say you can, but there are some smooth talkers out there. I can see a large area for abuse. With the purchase of real estate, they are A) removing the house with a potential for crime (an increase in value on two accounts) and B) have real estate they can bundle and sell to a Crosland, for example, who will put in larger, more profitable commerce or residential areas. The key is making the deals on a grander scale. These people pull down multi-million deals, and would definitely require more than a money offer.

Now, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't be opposed to revolving loans or a fund setup for small business grants. In my opinion, this is the best of both worlds. By saying "We have set aside $300,000(arbit.) in grant money to encourage small business growth," not only are they limiting their risk to $300,000, but there are photo ops for promotion. Bang! You've got publicity out of it. Which sounds better in the newspaper "Small internet company given $50,000 to set up shop in Youngstown, or small internet company wins $50,000 grant to set up shop in Youngstown." The former sounds a little more desperate than the latter, and it would play to Youngstown's advantage not to affirm desperation. However, you do have merit in basically saying small business need stimulus.

Thank you, pghquest, for the delightful conversation. This is quite the mentally stimulating debate.

[CortlandGirl79]

Found this at i will shout youngstown

KPMG has released it bi-annual "Competitive Alternatives" report, comparing business costs in various industry sectors in 136 regions across the world.

Youngstown was chosen as the only region of Ohio to be included in the 2008 version.

i will shout youngstown: report compares business costs in youngstown to U.S. and international regions

[Mikieo415]

Originally Posted by pghquest

Completely agree with you here.. Why they dont offer these homes to investors to fix up, at a 0% interest until sold is beyond my understanding, it would encourage people to invest and spend money.. What Youngstown needs.

In many cases it is not worth any amount of money to fix these houses. They are usually stripped out and have serious structural defects. They would need tens of thousands to be livable.

[Mikieo415]

Originally Posted by pghquest

I could employ 5 people initially and 10 people within a year, and operate out of 3-4,000 sf... Internet company, which means I can locate my company anywhere.

with 10 people, at $20,000 a year income each, thats $200,000 a year going into the Youngstown economy vs $0....

That is less than $10 per hour. No one can live on that in today's day and age

[CortlandGirl79]

Originally Posted by Mikieo415

That is less than $10 per hour. No one can live on that in today's day and age

That's what i was thinking Mikie!

[Mikieo415]

Originally Posted by Nick Papagiorgio

Hello,

I was hoping to get some ideas/opinions from some Youngstown locals on a property my friends and I purchased on Redondo RD in Sep 2007. We did our homework and I came to to town, looked at several and finally settled on a beautiful 4 bedroom home that the owners of 30+ years were selling for a song. Since that time, renting it out has been difficult and the current renters don't pay on time. After our property manager evicts them, we are wondering what our next move should be. We are not looking to make a lot on rent. My concern is that we get reliable renters who take care of the property. Are there any programs, besides section 8, that lease long term? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Jeff

The outlook is bleak. I'm sorry you had to go through this. There is no easy way to say this but if you don't luck out on college kids you are out of luck. The only other people that would ever consider living there are ghetto folk. Some yuppies like that area, but they would rather buy it outright and sink a fortune in it.

[JR_C]

Is the rental situation really that bad? I find it rare to see a house for rent in my neighborhood that isn't owned by a slumlord. I guess it depends on the area?

[CortlandGirl79]

Here's an interesting video from YouTube:


YouTube - "Accent On Youngstown 3-21-08

Our second installment of "Accent On Youngstown" is here with our own Danny Mizicko showing off his own production company, Stuck in Ohio, with one of his own homemade videos. Next we have the energetic and fantastic Director of the Youngstown Symphony, Randall Craig Fleischer talking about his Ohio roots and the next season. Finally we have restauranteur George Mager, who runs Cafe Cimmento with his son, and is a favorite of the Chevrolet Centre crowd and the rest of us. Look back in 2 weeks for our next installment

The part about the symphony was pretty interesting.........