B+ and B- areas of Cincinnati (Centerville, Spring Valley: low income, apartment complex, renter)

[TomJones123]

OTR: Adopt

I think this answers at least part of your question.

[TomJones123]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

I hope I did not come off that way, it's just Dayton and parts of Cincinnati are infested with slumlords. As a landlord I strive to do my best. If I had your property volume I would hire out to a manager as well. Sadly, many do not and good landlords (like you and I) are left with guilt by association.

And to clarify, by involved I mean I take care of these folks and leave them be.

Let me say this again since our posting times clashed.

[gentle_chief]

Originally Posted by Ohioan58

And landlords create part of the housing ecosystem for renters who would never be in a position to own anyway.

Yep Ohioan, that is Gold...

I have been stone-cold broke and jobless. There have been countless days when I have had nothing in my pocket. Zilch - empty. I was embarrassed to ask family & friends a helping hand. Many said that I was a 'waster'.

Humiliated, I promised I will not let this situation happen again. I took a step back and went to my studies. My wife worked and we survived on a single income with my 2 year old son in a rented unit.

Things have changed since then. fast forward 10 years to now & I work a decent 6 figure job. Thanks to my studies. Moving along, we have made a number of sacrifices in life to save money & invest. For growth. And I have been successful in the real-estate game back in Australia. And I come here to US and Ohio in particular to invest. Because I believe things are about to change soon.

And some naive people on this forum think we are sharks.....

[gentle_chief]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

Let me say this again since our posting times clashed.

Yep, peace my friend...

[CarpathianPeasant]

Originally Posted by gentle_chief

Yep Ohioan, that is Gold...

I have been stone-cold broke and jobless. There have been countless days when I have had nothing in my pocket. Zilch - empty. I was embarrassed to ask family & friends a helping hand. Many said that I was a 'waster'.

Humiliated, I promised I will not let this situation happen again. I took a step back and went to my studies. My wife worked and we survived on a single income with my 2 year old son in a rented unit.

Things have changed since then. fast forward 10 years to now & I work a decent 6 figure job. Thanks to my studies. Moving along, we have made a number of sacrifices in life to save money & invest. For growth. And I have been successful in the real-estate game back in Australia. And I come here to US and Ohio in particular to invest. Because I believe things are about to change soon.

And some naive people on this forum think we are sharks.....

So, you're an Aussie. And, maybe you even heard about the super-cheap real estate on Craigslist.

I hope your visit to the U.S. turns out okay.

[Ohioan58]

Originally Posted by gentle_chief

And some naive people on this forum think we are sharks.....

It's just a business, like any other.

Landlords may stabilize a shaky neighborhood by purchasing properties that otherwise nobody would be able to or wish to own as owner-occupied.

Some business owners crap all over the surrounding environment by externalizing their costs, and others operate responsibly and take care of their own business. Some business owners milk their assets until they are ruined, and others maintain them properly. I can find analogies to these operational patterns in completely different lines of business, such as IT.

Rentals are an odd business. Being a landlord has elements of being an authority figure at the same time that you are receiving business from others. And your property has a utilitarian purpose - income - so you may be understandably less attentive to appearances than some home owners. Or not.

I understand completely your point that you are not the buddy of your tenants and you really neither owe your tenants nor should allow your tenants to have a personal relationship with you. It MUST stay 100% business.

I owned property once and my tenants were disrespectful pains in the rectum to the extent that I allowed them to be familiar with me. I finally had to threaten with attorneys to force them to simply pay me rent when due and to not tear up the place. Anyone who looks down on the necessity of keeping an arm's length with tenants obviously lacks understanding of the relationship as well as knowledge of how people operate in the real world. It's not cynical manipulation, it's matter of fact necessity.

And that does not mean that the landlord has a free pass to be a lousy neighborhood presence. It means that the landlord simply has to maintain distance from his renters and keep it entirely professional. That means that he is usually a cipher to the neighborhood.

[TomJones123]

Originally Posted by Ohioan58

That means that he is usually a cipher to the neighborhood.

Give me a break. That is such a sweeping generalization based on your experiences, and/or predisposition. I am in an area with a lot of rental properties and there are several landlords who have invested heavily in the neighborhood and made it SIGNIFICANTLY better by buying homes in disrepair, fixing them up, vastly improving curb appeal, and locating quality tenants.

[gentle_chief]

Originally Posted by CarpathianPeasant

So, you're an Aussie. And, maybe you even heard about the super-cheap real estate on Craigslist.

I hope your visit to the U.S. turns out okay.

Yes CP, from sunny Sydney Australia.
And no I don't have crocodiles or kangaroos in my back-yard.

There a lot of differences that I see in real-estate between the US and Aus. In Australia, even a gutted old timber shed on a crappy uneven piece of land anywhere in Sydney/Melbourne will fetch a 300K plus. That is the bare bare minimum. Just the land value. Even out in the whoop whoop areas. Here in the US (in some cities atleast) high rises in the down-town area (50,000+ sqf buildings) are given away for next to nothing, if not nothing.

A downtown building in *any* of the Aussie city is pure Gold.
Cash-flow for life. Real-estate is valuable. Extremely valuable. No shonky or shady players with 'no money down deals' can get in. The banks are tough on a 80% Loan to value ratio. It keeps the banks strong. And keeps the real estate valuable. No easy money chasing Assets. And hence no asset price bubbles.

Minimum wages is $16 an hour. And good luck if you are an employer trying to find anyone on that wage! Not even if you worked at McDonalds flipping burgers. It is atleast $18-22 per hour in the hospitality & services industry employing unskilled labor. If you can drive a truck, you will make 80,000 - 90,000 per year. If you drive the same truck in regional areas servicing the Mining industry in Queensland or Western Australia you could be raking in a 130,000 per year.

And 1 Aus $ = 1.08 USD.
For ease of calc, that means minimum Aussie wages of $16 per hour is equal to 17.50 USD.

Hmmm, quite a difference eh?!
This shows that America is still very competitive amongst the western world.... And today it may not have a 'made in USA' label, but it definitely has the 'created in USA' badge. And that is why I am here, looking for the next upturn swing momentum...

[Ohioan58]

No discussion about rental property and landlords is complete without this classic:


Kill my landlord - YouTube

"Got no reason... what the heck! Kill my landlord..."

[restorationconsultant]

I guess I look at things quite differently since I spend most of my time dealing with slumlords who have no interest in being part of a neighborhood. I have never understood why one would go through the time an expense to fix a property, find tenants, only to deal with receiving back a battered and abused piece of real estate.

Tenants in Cincinnati (not the kind of people dropping 12-1500 bucks a month) but the house rental types paying 550-950 month (typical in my neighborhood) are people that have little , if any work ethic, no respect for others, and tend to be revolving door tenants. It is a totally different clientel that you will see in Austrailia. It is an entitled, I can do what I want because I am paying 'some' rent, and I'll pay it when I feel like it or it will take you 6 months to get me out, type of mindset. I am not refering to the section 8 people (who are often far worse than that) but people with a real job of some kind.

As a restorer I often get houses after destruction from being rentals. Personally I would rather invest 50-75 in a foreclosed house and resell it to a preservation minded owner/ocupant for 125-150 and not EVER have to deal with the kind of people I see renting.

Wish you would come to Cincy and get the "restoration bug". We need people willing to invest in communities and leave them in better condition than when they came.