Why You Should Invest in Ohio | REIal Talk | The Freedom Show | EP.92

Hi, guys. Welcome back to another episode on our podcast. We are going to be talking about why you should invest in Ohio. And today I am here with cj Hopefully a familiar face for you guys or familiar voice if you are listening. He's our investment specialist. He works on both spectrums that we offer forest education and have some background in real estate or obviously real estate investing, but turnkey investing as well. So kind of a jack of all trades. Do you want to say anything before we go ahead and get started?

Yeah, no, just really excited today to talk about the Ohio market. You know, I personally invest here. I have 22 rentals in the Dayton area. But yeah, I love talking about the different ways you can invest in real estate, whether it's actively through turnkey investment or, you know, more passively via private money lending or syndication investment. Yeah. So excited for today.

Perfect. All right. So you obviously, like you just said you have investments here in Ohio yourself, personally. So why would you say Ohio is so attractive for investors?

Yeah. So personally, I originally did it because I'm from here and I knew it was affordable real estate. Right. But as I've continued down this journey of real estate investments, you realize why so many investors are coming from out of state to invest in Ohio. And I think the main reason is Ohio has the fifth most Fortune 500 companies. Right. So there's a lot of steady and big job opportunities here while still being one of the more affordable states to live in. Right. And that makes for great affordable housing or great cash flow on your investment. And that is what a lot of investors, especially those starting out, are looking for is like a strong cash flow market.

Absolutely. So this kind of ties into the second question on what is the current market like or in general the Ohio market like?

Yeah. So, you know, one thing that I've seen a lot over the last couple years for just all the conversations I have with people who are looking to buy an investment property or a turnkey property is, you know, hearing people who had been investing in Texas or Alabama or Florida or these areas that saw significant appreciation. Not that, you know, Dayton did as well, but they are so much though that they couldn't find any new real estate opportunities that would cash flow. Right. So I think what makes Ohio a strong market is that you still can cash flow very strongly with the price to rent ratios that we have here.

Yeah, that's a really good point. I'm glad you brought up the ratio. That's what a lot of feedback I'm seeing from investors is. They're really looking for that 1%. And I would say almost every single property we have is at that 1% or higher.

Yeah, I agree. I think only if we get like just to the higher price properties. Maybe it's 50 bucks under or something, but it is. And that sticks be expected as you continue to increase in price, it's going to be harder and harder to achieve that 1% rule.

Right. And even at that point, just kind of like a side note, you know, your typical, you know, your property, you're going to increase that monthly rent on a yearly basis. How you increase that is of course your discretion. But usually you're going to increase that and that's just going to hire your return higher your cash flow and things like that.

So yeah, certainly.

Okay. So we talked about the market a little bit. We talked about why Ohio is so attractive. What cities or markets would you say are good markets to maybe start in or look at?

Yeah, so you know, for our company, we, you know, operate mainly here in Cincinnati and Dayton and there in between. And what I normally say for people is Cincinnati, you're probably looking at a little bit higher priced properties but maybe a little more appreciation because it is a bigger market. But Dayton is, you know, cheaper prices but also going to yield, you know, much stronger cash flow in most cases, as a generalization. So that's what I kind of try to understand with our buyers. Are you looking for more appreciation but maybe less cash flow or, you know, a lot of them are coming here to because they want the cash flow. So some will, you know, more tend to say Dayton. But on a general sense for Ohio, you know, yeah, Cleveland is also a good opportunity, a big market. Columbus is like the, you know, fastest growing city in the Midwest, but the prices are almost double what we have here in Dayton. So, you know, it can be hard to, you know, still find those cash flow opportunities, especially with where interest rates are currently in that market. But it is going to see more appreciation.

Yeah, definitely. Especially with everything that both Dayton markets and Cincinnati markets are doing to revitalize the area. You know, they're bringing in. I know you mentioned the like top 500 ink companies, but there's also several other new companies. There's a new production facility that is under construction here in Dayton, Ohio. They are in Cincinnati putting up this huge mall that's going to have so much more than what a normal mall would. They're going to have like go karting and like entertainment for like live music and things. So those two alone is going to bring in a lot of Employment opportunities to the area even outside of Ohio. I'm sure that's probably especially like the film production company that's probably going to bring employment from other states. But there's also other things in those areas, you know, like Cincinnati, you have UC University of Cincinnati, Dayton, you have University of Dayton and several other colleges around those areas as well. And like you said, in between, you have what's one in Oxford, Miami University. So all great universities right there. That is another way to attract renters because you have a large population of college students right there.

Yeah, yeah. I think for us with Dayton, right, it's right at the cross section of 70 and 75, two of the main highway systems and continuing to see so many distribution centers trucking. Right. Like these nice, stable jobs that, you know, are going to continue to drive that renter demand, hopefully. But yeah, it's crazy seeing Amazon. Google just announced two more data centers they're building here. So, you know, it's big names too, right? We have the small companies, but we also have some of those big, like, brand names that people recognize.

Yeah, like Procter and Gamble. That's one that's out of Cincinnati and that one's huge. They recently opened a Pepsi plant off of 675. You just mentioned that. So there's, like you just said, there's a ton of opportunities coming to the area and it's. I don't see it slowing down anytime soon.

Yeah, certainly.

So while we're on this, I kind of wanted to talk about unemployment rates for Dayton and Cincinnati. So Dayton, we're looking right around a 5.4 unemployment rate percentage. And then for Cincinnati, it's 4.5%. Cincinnati does have a larger population than the Dayton metro area does. But also the cost of living is fantastic. And you kind of touched on it a little bit where you were saying, you know, there are affordable markets. The cost of living for Dayton is 18% less than the national average. And for Cincinnati, it's 11% less than the national average. Which, again, it's. That's not only attractive for investors at that point, but it's also attractive for the residents in those areas.

Yeah, yeah. I think there's a lot of people. You do hear, you know, people moving their families to Ohio just because they can get so much more bang for their buck and have a much higher quality of life with the same amount of, you know, salary or whatever income that they. They have. So especially as, you know, some jobs have moved more remote, we've seen that more and more as people Are like, well, where do I want to live? Where can I have the best quality of life for, you know, my income? And so it has dispersed those people that much more from those major metropolitan areas.

Yeah, that's a really good point because there's been a couple of people I know actually who have moved. They grew up in Ohio, moved out of state for a position and then Covid hit and it offers some flexibility with their schedule where now they're just working remotely and they've been able to now move back home to Ohio to be with their family. But also there's Right. Pat Air Force Base that's constantly bringing in new clientele and residents to the area.

Yeah, yeah. One of my friends is a real estate agent and that's like his target demographic is all of the new Right Pat Air Force Base people that are coming in.

Oh, yeah, yeah. And it's nice too because a lot of times the I have personal experience and this is the military will sign the lease. Like they'll sign like a two or three year lease pending how long they're stationed here for. And most of the time they will just pay for like a year in advance for the lease or the military is paying for. So, you know, it's always going to come in on monthly clockwork.

Yep, yep.

All right. Well, that's all that I really had. I could go on and on talking about Ohio. I'm also born and raised here. Was there anything that you wanted to add at all?

Yeah, I think, you know what I would just say to our listeners, right. If you're debating whether to get started or where to go. Right. You know, Ohio is a fantastic market for a number of reasons that we mentioned on this podcast, but just would encourage you guys to take action.

Right.

I don't want to say that you can only be successful here in Ohio. We'd love. But I would just say take action. Right. And I think, you know, the services that we provide here make it a very easy even for an out of state investor. That is our specialty, helping someone through every step of the process, but just encouraged to take action. I know a lot of people are afraid of interest rates, but you can always refinance. Right. And that means there's less competition in today's climate.

Yeah, absolutely. Especially we actually talked about that on a pod, another podcast saying not to wait for interest rates just because if you're waiting for interest rates to go down and go down, you're potentially losing the equity in the house that you are getting at. When you're buying it at this point in time versus maybe waiting a year or two years. That's a year's worth of equity that you could be losing on it.

Yeah, certainly. Totally agree.

All right, well, I think that's it short podcast episode for you guys. Hopefully though, it was able to provide you guys with some insight. Like CJ said. If you guys have any questions at all, even if they're if it's about Ohio markets, if it's about how to get started in real estate, really, anything at all, go ahead, schedule an appointment. We'd be more than happy to talk to you guys and figure out your goals and see if we are able to help you on the way.

Yeah, 100%.

Perfect. Well, we always end these with investor live happy.

Thanks you guys.

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