The Andrew Hines Real Estate Investing Podcast · Andrew M. Hines

Is Cleveland the Next Big Real Estate Goldmine? with Ian Armour

·46 min·3 clips

Ian says East Cleveland is a place he will not even look at because it looks like a war zone.

1. The Andrew Hines Real Estate Investing Podcast episode 275 focuses on Ian Armour and Cleveland multifamily investing. 2. Ian Armour is the guest, Andrew Hines hosts the conversation, and Manny Schifra and Thomas Larini are named as partners because they have already invested with Ian. 3. The episode asks why Cleveland, Ohio, has become Ian Armour’s target market and how his group structures the deals. 4. Ian says Rich Dad Poor Dad pushed him into real estate, and he started a roofing company to create capital for investing. 5. He describes moving from about 10 flips into buy-and-hold conversions, including single-family basements with secondary suites in Halifax. 6. Ian says he bought two 8-unit buildings in Halifax and then hit scaling limits because of Canadian tenancy laws, prices, and turnover difficulties. 7. He says he and his partners moved into the United States, chose Cleveland after reviewing markets, and bought a 24-unit, then two 38-units, then a 97-unit building under contract. 8. Ian says a key metric was gross rent multiplier, and the group chose Cleveland because rents were high relative to purchase price without paying millions over asking. 9. He says Cleveland’s population is stable and the city offers enough fundamentals to support scaling without depending on boomtown growth. 10. Ian says CMHA programs, which he compares to section 8, have lifted some units from expected rents near $1,100 to about $1,500. 11. He says month-to-month tenants in the U.S. can be moved with 30 to 60 days’ notice, which he presents as far easier than Canadian tenant rules. 12. Ian says the group built a strong boots-on-the-ground team by hiring property managers who are investors themselves and manage hundreds of units. 13. He says a return visit to Cleveland showed more construction, more development, and more activity around his buildings than when they first bought there. 14. Ian says one of the best parts of the next 97-unit deal is its location near downtown, a university, and the Cleveland Browns Stadium. 15. He says the plan is to renovate, refinance, repay investors, and hold the building rather than sell quickly. 16. Ian says the group keeps the equity split simple, with 50% to capital partners and 50% to active partners, and uses GPLP structures with cross-border accountants. 17. Andrew and Ian discuss how the group raises roughly $2.5 million on a deal like this and keeps more cash in reserve instead of stretching leverage. 18. Ian’s tone is practical and numbers-driven, and Andrew keeps the interview conversational while pressing on rents, structure, and neighborhood risk. 19. Investors comparing Canada and U.S. multifamily will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners wanting story-driven true crime or non-real-estate content can skip it.

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