One house to prove it. One building to keep.
Two partners, their own cash and work, and an ordinary bank loan. No outside investors. This page lays out the idea, the money, who does what, and the first 90 days. The figures follow the budget set in the calculator: .
The idea
Small Ohio downtowns are lined with brick buildings. Many have a shop on the ground floor and empty or half-used floors above, and few of them ever reach a listing.
The good ones pass quietly from owners who are tired, far away, behind on taxes, or settling an estate. Those facts are all in public county records. So we read every record, and we call the right owners first.
We do not buy everything that might sell. We buy storefronts with apartments, small apartment buildings, and houses to flip. We do not buy bars, banks, lodges, churches or parking lots, however motivated the owner.
First win: flip one house
A house is the smallest complete deal there is. Buy, fix, sell, in under a year. It turns a plan on paper into a finished job with a closing statement, and it shows a bank and each other that this team finishes what it starts.
The rule of thumb: never pay more than of the fixed-up value, less the cost of the work. The house list shows how far under today's value each house must be bought, and which owners have a reason to take less.
The long game: one Main Street building
A flip pays once. A building with a shop and apartments pays every month and can be worth more each year the downtown improves. It is also harder: bigger, slower, with rules about stairs and sprinklers.
So we do it in phases. Buy with a bank loan. Fix the storefront and one apartment first. Let the rent pay for the rest. Nobody writes one giant check.
| House flip | Main Street building | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Months | Years to finish |
| Pays | Once, at the sale | Monthly, plus the value |
| Loan | Bank loan or flip lender | A local bank loan |
| Biggest risk | Paying too much | The work costing double |
| Why do it | Speed and proof | The asset worth keeping |
How a deal flows, from lead to closing
Each step has an owner and a point where we stop if the answer is no.
Two partners, two jobs
Both partners put in cash and both are on the deed. They do different work, and the split says so in writing before the first offer.
Carries the money side
- Puts in the larger share of the cash
- Holds the bank relationship and signs the loan
- Approves every offer and any spending over the budget
- Gets a monthly one-page report
Carries the work
- Runs the lead pipeline and makes the calls
- Walks properties and gets contractor numbers
- Manages the job week to week and does part of the labor
- Handles the sale or the tenants
How the sample flip above would divide. Cash goes back first to whoever put it in. What is left over is split by an agreed share. Change the split in the calculator.
A starting point for a conversation. A lawyer writes the real agreement.
The money
Three sources, in this order: the partners' own cash, the partners' own labor, and an ordinary bank loan. There are no outside investors, no promised returns, and nothing borrowed against a sale that has not happened.
Covers the down payment, the work and the bills while we hold the property. of the work budget is held back for surprises.
Demo, paint, floors and managing the trades. It stretches the cash, and the split gives it credit.
A plain mortgage on the purchase. On a building, a local bank that knows the street.
Every figure on this site comes from a public record or a stated assumption. Tap an underlined number to see which. Change the budget and this page reprices.
Why these towns
County-seat-sized downtowns, each close enough to check on a job before lunch. Columbus is left out on purpose: prices there already assume the upside.
| Town | Drive | Downtown buildings | Status |
|---|
Ohio's historic building credit pays 35 percent of approved rehab cost, for buildings that qualify. The paperwork is heavy.
The pipeline today
The lead list is not a hunch. It is what is left after the county's whole file passes through the filters below, rebuilt whenever the county posts new records.
The next 90 days
What could go wrong
A plan that does not name its risks is a brochure. These are the ones that matter, and what we do about each.