Real Estate Investors Association of Greater Cincinnati

Instead, he died owning two houses with a combined value of less than $200,000, with almost no cash in the bank, and living mostly off Social Security.

Dad was a sort of real estate pioneer. He was smart, a millionaire back when a million dollars was real money, one of the founders of Cincinnati REIA, and the teacher of what was probably the most popular real estate investing class in Southern Ohio.

Through DECADES (he bought his first apartment building in 1964 and his last rental house around 2004) of work and sacrifice, he built a portfolio of about 100 apartments and 150 single-family houses.

And then he got Alzheimer’s.

Long before the official diagnosis, we could all see that something was wrong with his executive functioning.

A roof would leak, and he would spend weeks waffling about whether it needed to be repaired or replaced. Properties sat vacant longer and longer and deteriorated further and further. The manager of one of his apartment buildings essentially stopped managing it, leaving a heavily mortgaged building with a broken boiler and only two tenants in 13 units—one of whom wasn’t paying.

Dad knew, at least off and on, what needed to be done.

But increasingly, he couldn’t make himself do it.

And because his entire identity was wrapped up in being the brilliant real estate expert and self-made millionaire, he became fiercely protective of his right to keep running the business. Even after he understood that he had Alzheimer&rs ... Read More…

Ok, so this is me making the craziest-sounding post I've ever made here, but here goes.

I've talked to a lot of people now who've both been in real estate for decades AND who've done a lot of different kinds of deals, and so far, they all agree that we eventually develop what I call "Real Estate Spidey Senses".

What it feels like from the inside:

You’re looking at a deal where everything seems perfectly fine. The numbers work. The seller/borrower/partner is agreeable and aligned. Maybe the title and inspections even look clean. Nothing has actually happened that should make you nervous.

But something...

...Maybe it's in the seller’s story. Or a single conversation you've had with the proposed partner, out of many. Or the way the deal is coming together.

Something you can't put your finger on makes you think:

"This deal is going to blow up."

You can’t tell exactly HOW it’s going to blow up. You can’t point to a specific problem. You just have a feeling that something you don’t know about yet is going to present itself—and when it does, the whole thing is going sideways.

(There's a reverse to this, too: the rare scenario where the seller has said "No" in a seemingly no-going-back way, or maybe even signed a contract with someone else, and your spidey-tingle says, "I'm going to buy this one...")

Since in real life, I have very little in the way of "intuition", I have to think that tis is long-term, accumulated pattern recognition.

After y ... Read More…

If you don’t do subject to, this probably isn’t going to interest you a lot, but if you do, here's a weaponized autism evaluation of the new FHA modification rules for ya:

I just talked to about the fifth FHA-insured loan holder in three months who re-defaulted after a loan modification in which both the interest rate AND the payment went UP.

I KNEW something was up, because after years of hearing, “We’ll just take all those back payments and shove them into a zero-interest, zero-payment partial claim second that you don’t have to worry about until you sell the house or pay off the first mortgage,” this seemed like a pretty clear change in HUD policy.

So I finally got curious and looked it up this morning.

And sure enough, the policy really did change on October 1, 2025.

Before then, FHA servicers were still using the COVID-era loss-mitigation rules. One of the most common solutions was to put the missed payments into a “silent second” owed to HUD—the thing called a “partial claim mortgage.”

Those were great for homeowners and, assuming we understood that the time bomb was there, for us as sub to buyers.

Because those partial claim mortgages have no interest, no monthly payment, and they let the homeowner keep the original first mortgage—with its original interest rate and payment.

That was obviously a HUGE benefit to someone with one of those 2.5%, 3%, or 4% loans.

But…and maybe right ... Read More…

The time to do big cosmetic renovations on your rentals is when property values and rents are climbing, and incomes are keeping up with rents.

In those scenarios, it’s easy to BRRRR your way out of $20k in new kitchens and bathrooms, and it’s easy to justify the cost of the improvements, because it’s easy to raise the rents to get an ROI on them.

Right now, might not be that time.

OF COURSE I’m not talking about roofs, furnaces, plumbing, electrical, or anything else that affects safety, function, or the long-term health of the property. Fix the leaking roof. Replace the furnace that can’t be repaired. Maintain the property properly.

And I’m also not saying “Buy the property at a price that doesn’t take into account that it will NEED that new kitchen to actually reach the After-Repaired Value.

Too many people are already fooling themselves by saying, “The ARV is $300k, but I only need to put $30K into it to rent it, so $210 is a bargain” when, in fact, it would need $80,000 in work to be worth $300,000.

I’m talking about tearing out a perfectly functional kitchen or bathroom so you can install granite countertops, trendy cabinets, and luxury finishes—and then charging another $100 or $200 a month to justify it.

I’m not convinced that’s what the market needs right now, especially in B and C areas.

Rents have already outstripped a lot of people’s ability to pay them. And neither ... Read More…

Ya’ll. 

PLEASE stop asking general-purpose AI for financial and real estate advice.

Or…go ahead and ask it. But don’t automatically do what it says.

I’m not saying AI isn’t useful. I use it every day. 

And there are people building specialized GPTs and AI agents that are trained on particular kinds of deals, documents, financing strategies, and rules. Some of those may be genuinely useful—especially when they’ve been built and tested by people who actually understand the subject.

But asking Claude or ChatGPT:

“What should I pay for this property?”

“How should I finance it?”

“Is this a good creative-financing structure?”

“How do I make enough money to retire?”

…and then making a major financial decision based on the answer?

That’s…not…wise.

Oh, you’ll get an answer. 

And the answer will SOUND very sensible and fact-based.

But here’s the thing about generic AI: It doesn’t actually know how to set an ARV for your specific deal.

I doesn’t know whether the rent estimate you gave it is realistic.

It certainly doesn’t know that a 125-year-old house in that particular neighborhood probably needs a much bigger maintenance reserve than the generic percentage it pulled from somewhere.

It doesn’t know whether your “creative” deal violates a state law, creates a tax problem, or depends on a ... Read More…

There are few (if any) benefits to owning investment real estate in your own name. There are many reasons NOT to own investment real estate in your personal name. Here is a real-life case in point.

I control ten condominiums (in one complex) via ten separate Land Trusts. Each property is held in a separate Land Trust with the Beneficiary of each Trust being a Limited Liability Company. All ten units are rented to tenants.

Now and then trouble would arise at this complex and the tenants would start arguing with each other which oftentimes resulted in the police getting involved. Upon further investigation, I found that one of my tenants was always at the center of the trouble. In fact, it appeared that she was the source of all discontent!

When it came time to renew the leases at my complex, I decided not to renew Ms. Troublemaker’s lease. She had rented from me for years and was VERY unhappy that we were “kicking her out.” Of course, she wanted an explanation as to why I was not renewing her lease and I simply told her that the “owner” (the Trustee of the Land Trust) was not happy with her involvement with the other tenants and therefore, her lease would not be renewed.

Well, this explanation was not good enough for Ms. Troublemaker. A few days after my conversation with Ms. T. I received a call from my attorney’s secretary (my attorney was serving as my Trustee). The secretary said there was a lady at their office demanding to speak ... Read More…

I write and teach a lot about the many benefits of using a Land Trust to hold title to real estate investments. There is a lot of misinformation in the marketplace about Land Trusts and a lot of bad advice given regarding these title-holding trusts. After using these trusts for more than 40 years, I have found that the myths outnumber the facts. In this article, I will dispel some of the myths that I hear over and over.

MYTH: Only bare land can be put into a Land Trust.

TRUTH: Any real estate (or real estate-related asset) can be titled in a Land Trust.

MYTH: My lender will not let me close my deal using a Land Trust.

TRUTH: This depends on if you are using borrowed funds from a lender that must qualify you in the secondary market. If you must meet secondary market guidelines you must indeed close the deal in your name, but you can put the property into a Land Trust the day after closing. Once you have 10 secondary market loans (the maximum allowed) you must use a portfolio lender and they will let you close using your Land Trust.

Note: Bank of America WILL let you close four secondary market loans using a Land Trust to take the initial title. However, you must use an Illinois Land Trust and the property must be in Illinois.

MYTH: Do I have to get a tax ID number for my Land Trust?

TRUTH: The answer is no. Nor do you have to register your Trust Agreement with anyone.

MYTH: You can't do a Short Sale using a Land Trust.

TRUTH: False. You can and I have and there are ... Read More…

Note: Laws and regulations regarding the advertising, registering, and formalization of private loans vary enormously state-to-state. Generally, these rules apply to the borrower rather than the lender, but even lenders should be aware of what the laws in your state say about these transactions. Of course, this article is not intended as legal, accounting, or other professional advice. Always consult with your legal, accounting, or other professional before making any investment.  Further, nothing in this article should be construed as an offering or solicitation of a security. 

Private lending is a strategy in which even moderate-income investors can easily get involved.

There are plenty of real estate entrepreneurs and rehabbers who want to borrow your money; if you let it be known you have as little as $20,000 to lend in most markets, someone will be right there ready to put that cash to work.

If all goes as it’s supposed to, it’s a truly hands-off investment; you just sit back and collect checks. And the return is oh-so-much better than other fixed-rate investments; you can expect to average around 6%–8% per year total (because higher-rate loans are generally also shorter-term; when you loan money to a rehabber at 12%, but he only uses that money nine months a year, that still works out to 8%).

But the big fallacy of private lending is that YOU, as the private lender, don’t need to know very much to assure that the deal goes well. A ... Read More…

For years, I ran my construction business as an owner-operator, wearing every hat from sales and project management to bookkeeping. The business produced income, but it depended entirely on me. If I stepped away, everything stopped. That realization led me to create the Biz Freedom Framework™, a five-part system for building a business that can thrive without the owner being involved in every decision.

The framework begins with Ownership: defining a clear vision, documenting guiding principles, and intentionally building a company that can succeed with or without you.

Next is Leadership. That means developing people, setting clear expectations, and empowering others to make decisions instead of relying on the owner for everything.

In construction, the next steps are Get Work and Do Work. Consistent marketing and sales systems generate opportunities, while documented procedures and trained teams deliver quality work efficiently.

Keep Track ties everything together through job costing, cash flow management, and financial reporting that supports informed decisions instead of guesswork.

Applying this approach transformed my construction company into an employer-led business that performed just as well, if not better, when I wasn't there.

When I moved into real estate investing, the same principles applied. Get Work became Get Deals, and Do Work became Do Deals, but the foundation remained the same: Ownership, Leadership, consistent deal flow, efficient execution, an ... Read More…

If you don’t think that real estate investing is a relationship business, you haven’t been paying attention.

Your connections with other investors bring you local market knowledge, referrals to trustworthy professionals, funding, partnerships, and deals. Those relationships are what help you succeed, not just this year, but for years to come.

But these relationships don’t just happen for most people. You have to be intentional about building and maintaining them, just like you’re intentional (I hope) about building a rental portfolio, a buyer’s list, or a marketing plan.

REIA groups exist, in large part, to provide a platform for you to find and interact with like-minded folks who can encourage and help you be successful, but you have to do your part, too. Here are some tips for the 95% of us who aren’t natural connectors:

1. Be intentional about your professional development.

There’s no job you can have or business you can be in where your value isn’t enhanced by knowing more.

And in real estate, that value comes in two forms: knowing more simply means you can do more deals and make more money, but it also means you have more to offer your colleagues.

Knowledge is one currency that you can share to get what you need from others, and it’s a way of offering value to other people. Plus, it’s not fair to expect other people in the community to teach you every single thing you need to know about real estate. I ... Read More…