Hello!
Thank you for checking out the introductory post of the Cleveland Investor Primer Blog! I’m Rob Matelski and I launched the blog portion of this site to serve as a venue for offering timely advice and current thoughts to those interested in investing in Cleveland area residential real estate, and to add a more personal touch to the site than what you’ll find in the Area Guide or Toolkit.
Who Am I?
On one hand, I’m now a California-based absentee owner of more than half a dozen Cleveland area rental properties, as well as some real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live and work. As an Ivy League MBA alum working in a professional career, I possess a shrewd business-oriented mindset and I’m always on the lookout for lucrative investment opportunities. Market abnormalities that present opportunities to acquire assets for amounts far below their intrinsic value are my call to action.
On the other hand though, I’m a scrappy Cleveland native from a working class background who had an interest in real estate long before I was old enough to even drive. Growing up I moved between a number of different rented houses (or rather, units in multi-family properties) in Cleveland, and I was fascinated by the concept of property ownership and development and construction in general. Even as a pre-teen I was frequently feverishly looking at real estate listings (in printed form, of course, in the pre-internet 1990s), and plotting my approach for eventually buying real estate on my own. I saw huge potential, both physically and financially, in all of the neglected corners of the city, and I knew that someday I would figure out how to make a real impact.
Within weeks of starting as a Freshman at John Carroll University in suburban Cleveland, I took on a somewhat unusual endeavor for an 18-year-old college student — I bought my first property, a ramshackle duplex in the St. Clair – Superior neighborhood for $18,000. Over the next couple of years I bought several more properties in the same neighborhood, generally over-paying, and always over-leveraging. I then proceeded to over-improve them (i.e. pour far more money into them than the location warranted), and manage them poorly in general.
Obviously it was not my plan to make all these mistakes, and it took some time to even realize I had made them… but in the late 1990s there were far fewer educational resources for learning how to navigate all of this than there are today. Without any real mentor or adviser, I unfortunately learned the hard way through trial and error (excessive amounts of error really).
By the time I was in graduate school studying architecture a few years down the road, the whole thing sort of came tumbling down. Tired, broke and sporting an extremely battered credit score, I was just relieved to finally have closure to my first misguided and flawed attempt at Cleveland real estate investment. But that doesn’t mean I lost interest in the topic.
Despite having moved quite far away, I was still very interested in the Cleveland real estate market. Along with the passing of a decade or so came huge advancement in online real estate search capability. As the Great Recession’s effects were taking their toll on the country, I was attending business school, and still digging ever deeper into Cleveland real estate in spare pockets of time throughout my busy schedule.
With real estate values ravaged all over the country, and especially in Cleveland, I recognized a huge opportunity that I knew could not last long-term. Though property values were down significantly, rents were down either just slightly, or in some cases not at all. Properties were selling for prices last seen several decades earlier. I did the analysis and quickly went into buy-mode.
Over the course of the several years after completing my MBA, I lived frugally but comfortably while working my corporate job. By saving a huge portion of my income, I was able to invest long-term in properties in the Bay Area as well as the Cleveland Area, all acquired for well under their previous peak values. By buying and renting these properties I have been able to generate a significant source of cash flow while also helping to stabilize the areas around the properties.
By learning first-hand what not to do back when I was in my early 20s, I had a huge knowledge base to use to my advantage. By the time my 30s came around, I was able to create a successful portfolio of high-performing residential real estate assets as a buy-and-hold investor.
Why this Blog?
Though there is no shortage of information about real estate out there, it is seldom both fully unbiased and Cleveland-specific simultaneously. With this blog, I am taking the opportunity to provide information that checks both of those boxes — unbiased because I am not trying to sell you a property, manage your property, or buy your property, and Cleveland-specific because that is the primary market of my focus.
For years I have been routinely providing objective advice and mentorship to people interested in investing in the Cleveland real estate market. After a while I realized that there were lots of recurring topics and themes, and thought that it would probably make sense to document and publish it.
The all-important “what’s in it for me?” question remains unanswered, I suppose. I guess you could say there are two things that are in it for me: 1) I truly enjoy the topic, and helping people learn about a subject I have been passionate about for more than half of my life is inherently rewarding, 2) By monetizing the site with [very obvious] advertisements via Google AdSense, I am able to generate potential revenue.
It’s All About You
At the end of the day, I am writing this blog to help you, the readers. If the site is not valuable for an audience, then it serves no real purpose. I envision the audience of this blog being a wide range of people who are all either already investing in the Cleveland real estate market, or are curious about it.
My goal is to deliver content that is relevant and helpful, so that others can learn from what I have figured out over the years. I hope that you will find it useful, and that you’ll spread the word with others who might find it helpful or benefit in some way.
Comments on the blog posts are encouraged, as I love feedback, both positive and constructive (that’s how anyone can learn what is working and what needs work). Plus I like to hear different points of view and engage in well-reasoned debates as well. All of the comments on this blog will be read, and if warranted, answered.
Finally, you are welcome to send me a message via the Contact page. If you have an idea for a future blog post, definitely let me know, because if there’s a topic you want to learn about, there’s a good chance that others do too.