Ohio is the highest-yield state we lend in. Trumbull County posts an 11.5% gross rental yield, Cuyahoga 9.5%, and 10.8% of every home sold in Ohio is a flip. We fund the purchase and 100% of the rehab so you can work that volume.
An Ohio hard money loan is a short-term, business-purpose real estate loan secured by the property and underwritten on its after-repair value rather than on your W-2s or tax returns. Investors use it to buy, renovate and either resell or refinance Ohio investment property on a timeline no conventional lender can match.
CambridgeHomeLoan lends across all 88 Ohio counties on 1–4 unit non-owner-occupied, multifamily, mixed-use and ground-up construction. Business-purpose only.
Ohio’s average gross flip profit is $54,710 against Tennessee’s $91,232. That looks like a loss until you notice Ohio does 2.3 times the flip volume, its rental yields are roughly double, and it is a far tighter market on the exit: 3 months of supply, 43 days on market, and 30.2% of homes selling above list.
Among the highest in the nation. Cuyahoga posts 9.5% and Lucas is above 10%.
10.8% of all Ohio home sales, versus 8.0% nationally. Cleveland leads every U.S. metro over one million people at 12.1%.
More than double Tennessee’s 13.8%. Three months of supply and a 98.6% sale-to-list ratio.
Sources: ATTOM Data Solutions Q1 2026 Home Flipping Report and 2026 Single-Family Rental Market Report (March 5, 2026); Redfin Ohio housing market data, June 2026. Gross yield is a screening ratio (annual rent ÷ price), not a net return — Ohio’s 1.36% property tax rate takes a real bite out of it, which is why the calculator below models it explicitly.
Ohio reached 11,900,510 residents as of July 1, 2025 — up 39,889 in one year (+0.34%) and up 0.86% since the 2020 Census. On the headline number, that is unremarkable.
The composition is not. Ohio lost more than 32,000 residents to domestic out-migration in 2021. In 2024–25 it gained +11,926 — the most people moving to Ohio in 25 years, and the 10th-highest migration rate in the country. Ohio was one of only four states, with Kentucky, Montana and New Hampshire, to simultaneously post more births, fewer deaths and improved domestic migration.
Why this matters to a lender and to you: the Ohio Department of Development’s 2023 projection had the state declining by roughly 675,000 people by 2050. The Vintage 2025 actuals are already outperforming that path, which is why state officials now publicly describe Ohio as growing. Treat the 2023 projection as a stale downside case, not a forecast — and treat Ohio rental demand as stabilizing rather than eroding.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates; Ohio Statehouse News Bureau / WOSU, March 12, 2026; Ohio Department of Development, 2023 State Population Projections Report.
| Metro | Population | 1-yr change |
|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati | 2,312,858 | +13,107 |
| Columbus | 2,242,028 | +21,312 |
| Cleveland | 2,165,775 | +2,539 |
| Dayton | 826,554 | +5,604 |
| Akron | 701,780 | +1,628 |
| Toledo | 599,376 | −26 |
| Youngstown | 423,678 | −913 |
| Canton | 400,246 | +439 |
Columbus alone accounts for more than half of Ohio’s entire annual gain, and +10,968 of its +21,312 came from international migration. Dayton grew fastest by percentage among the large metros at +0.68%.
At a $148,000 Cleveland basis, the rehab is often bigger than the purchase. That is exactly the deal shape a bank cannot fund and we can. Send the scope and the ARV comps — terms back inside 24 hours.
Ohio splits cleanly into two plays: Columbus is the growth market and everything else is a yield market. Pick one and underwrite it honestly — the mistake is buying Youngstown on an appreciation thesis or Columbus on a cash-flow thesis.
| Market | Median price | YoY | DOM | 3BR rent | Gross yield | Dominant strategy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cleveland | $148,169 | +10.7% | 33 | $1,400 | 11.3% | BRRRR and fix & flip |
| Canton | $127,930 | −3.1% | 26 | $1,200 | 11.3% | Fix & flip, BRRRR |
| Youngstown | $117,936 | +17.9% | 47 | $1,050 | 10.7% | Rental cash flow |
| Toledo | $141,373 | +8.7% | 41 | $1,250 | 10.6% | Rental cash flow |
| Dayton | $149,918 | +7.1% | 40 | $1,300 | 10.4% | Rental cash flow, BRRRR |
| Akron | $145,648 | −0.2% | 25 | $1,250 | 10.3% | Fast-turn flip |
| Cincinnati | $295,839 | +5.7% | 48 | $1,949 | 7.9% | Rental cash flow, value-add MF |
| Columbus | $303,835 | +6.2% | 39 | $1,770 | 7.0% | New construction, BRRRR |
Each city page carries local comps, typical rehab cost ranges, county tax notes and its own calculator.
Ohio is a hold market. This calculator runs the full buy-rehab-rent-refinance cycle and shows you the number that actually matters: how much of your cash is still trapped in the deal after the DSCR refinance, and what it earns.
Property tax defaults to Ohio’s 1.36% effective rate — 2.6× Tennessee’s. Adjust for your county.
Estimate only. Bridge interest is modeled interest-only on the full balance; actual draws reduce it. A DSCR above 1.20 is the usual refinance threshold. Not a commitment to lend.
This is the single biggest operational difference between lending in Ohio and lending in Tennessee or Texas, and most out-of-state investors do not model it until it is too late.
Source: Ohio Legal Help, foreclosure timeline. Contrast: Tennessee resolves a non-judicial sale in about 5–6 months and Texas in roughly 155 days.
If your Ohio exit slips, the workout is slow and expensive for everyone. That cuts two ways.
Against you: build a genuine reserve. A 6-month Ohio flip that goes wrong is not a 6-month problem. We would rather lend you 88% and see you hold three months of carry in cash than lend 95% into a file with no cushion.
For you: the same slow pipeline is what keeps a standing inventory of deferred-maintenance, pre-foreclosure and REO product moving through Cuyahoga, Lucas, Montgomery, Stark and Mahoning counties. Ohio’s distress supply is a structural feature of its court system.
Ohio is a hybrid state. Some county treasurers sell tax lien certificates at auction opening at 18% simple interest and bidding down in quarter-point increments, with a 6% effective minimum return; others foreclose directly to a sheriff tax deed sale. There is no fixed post-sale redemption window — the owner may redeem until the certificate holder starts foreclosure, then until confirmation of sale or the end of the 28-day alternative redemption period. Properties unsold at two foreclosure sales become forfeited lands offered by the county auditor. County land banks are active acquirers in this channel.
Governing sections: R.C. 5721.30–5721.43 (tax certificates), R.C. 5723.06 (forfeited lands), R.C. 323.25–323.28 (collection).
Ohio has attracted an extraordinary amount of announced capital. The sequencing matters far more than the headline dollar figures, because construction-phase demand and operating-phase demand hit housing very differently.
4,000 jobs across 5 million sq ft on 500 acres in Pickaway County near Rickenbacker, supported by $70M from the All Ohio Future Fund. Production of military drones and autonomous air vehicles was slated to begin July 2026. Described at announcement as the largest jobs deal in Ohio history.
$3.5 billion, 2,200 jobs in Jeffersonville, Fayette County. Nearly complete as of February 2026, fully erected by June 2026, with more than 500 full-time associates already hired. Production start date not published.
$28 billion, 3,000 Intel jobs plus 7,000 construction jobs — but delayed twice. Mod 1 is now targeted for 2030 and Mod 2 for 2031. More than 6.4 million work hours invested; basement complete, above-ground construction underway. For 2027 this is construction workforce demand, not operating headcount.
AWS committed $10 billion more by end of 2030, with cumulative Ohio investment projected past $23 billion and up to eight new sites, the first in Fayette County at roughly $5 billion. Statewide, companies plan up to $40 billion more in Ohio data centers by 2030.
The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel notes in the same March 2026 report that data centers “create relatively few permanent jobs once they are built.” The housing demand from a data center is construction-phase — two to three years of trades workers needing rentals — not a permanent resident base. There is also live Ohio policy debate about their effect on electricity prices, which flows into your operating expenses.
Underwrite build-to-rent and mid-term rental near these sites for the construction window. Do not underwrite a 30-year appreciation thesis on a data center announcement.
Ohio unemployment was 3.4% in July 2026 against 4.1% nationally — down 1.1 percentage points year over year, one of the larger improvements in the country (BLS, August 21, 2026).
Regionomics forecasts Columbus MSA employment growth of +0.7% in 2026 to 1,191,600, ahead of the 0.5% U.S. rate, with the largest gains in leisure and hospitality (+4,000) and education and health (+3,900). Their read: “Growth will slow in 2026 but still exceed the U.S. average.”
On home prices for 2027, forecasters split hard: Fannie Mae sees +1.2% with 5.9% mortgage rates; the MBA sees +0.1% with rates flat at 6.4%. Underwrite the MBA case in Ohio — a judicial foreclosure state is not where you want to be optimistic about your exit.
Sources: BLS State Employment and Unemployment, Aug. 21 2026; Regionomics Columbus Forecast 2026; Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, Data Centers in Ohio, March 2026; Scotsman Guide, Dec. 29 2025.
A 10.4% gross yield in Dayton is worth nothing if you sell at month seven. Buy and rehab on the bridge, stabilize the lease, then refinance into a 30- or 40-year DSCR loan up to 85% LTV — qualified on the rent, not your returns.
Ohio’s effective rate on owner-occupied housing value is 1.36%, versus Tennessee’s 0.52%. Property taxes make up 27.7% of all Ohio state and local tax revenue. On a $215,000 ARV rental that is roughly $2,900 a year — nearly two months of rent in a Dayton or Toledo deal. It is the single largest reason an Ohio 10% gross yield does not become a 10% net yield.
Tax Foundation, 2026. And note: four Ohio property tax reform bills took effect March 18, 2026 (H.B. 124, 129, 309, 335), with H.B. 186 effective December 2025. H.B. 186 eliminates the nonbusiness credit for residential properties including multi-family condos; H.B. 335 limits inside-millage revenue increases to GDP-deflator growth over three years during reappraisal periods. If you are working from a 2024 pro forma, it is wrong.
The state conveyance fee is $1.00 per $1,000 (0.1%), plus a county permissive fee set locally — Franklin County adds $2.00 per $1,000 for a combined 0.3%, plus a $0.50 per-parcel transfer tax and a $3 minimum fee. Customarily seller-paid but negotiable. Crucially, Ohio charges no separate mortgage or indebtedness tax, which makes recording an Ohio loan meaningfully cheaper than recording the same loan in Tennessee. County rates vary — verify per county.
Ohio Revised Code 1343.01 caps contract interest at 8% per annum absent an exception. The exceptions that matter for hard money: principal exceeding $100,000 is freely negotiable; business loans to proprietorships, partnerships and associations are exempt; and real-estate mortgages not otherwise exempt get a floating cap of 8% above the 90-day commercial paper discount rate.
Why this is not theoretical in Ohio: Canton at $127,930, Youngstown at $117,936, Toledo at $141,373 and Akron at $145,648 mean sub-$100,000 loan amounts are routine here in a way they simply are not in Tennessee or New Jersey. A sub-$100K Ohio loan needs a deliberate exemption analysis, not an assumption.
The Ohio Residential Mortgage Lending Act (R.C. Ch. 1322) requires registration to act as a mortgage lender. Its scope turns on R.C. 1322.01(II), which defines a residential mortgage loan as one primarily for personal, family or household use secured by a dwelling — so genuine business-purpose investor loans fall outside it.
But note what R.C. 1322.04’s express exemption list does not contain: no business-purpose exemption, no non-owner-occupied exemption, and no de-minimis loan-count exemption. The protection is definitional rather than an enumerated safe harbor — which makes documenting business purpose on every Ohio file more important than in Tennessee, where a five-loans-per-12-months exemption exists on top of the same definition. CambridgeHomeLoan is licensed, NMLS #1826020.
Nonpayment requires a 3-day notice to leave the premises (courts often read this as three business days). Curable lease violations require a 30-day cure notice first; serious conduct such as illegal drug activity skips the cure period. Total uncontested eviction runs 5 to 8 weeks. Ohio permits no-fault non-renewal at the end of a fixed term and month-to-month termination on 30 days’ notice.
| Property type | Typical Ohio use case | Max leverage |
|---|---|---|
| 1–4 unit non-owner-occupied | Cleveland, Canton and Dayton BRRRR and flips | 90% purchase / 100% rehab |
| Multifamily 5+ | Cincinnati and Cleveland urban-core value-add | Up to 75% ARV |
| Mixed-use | Columbus Short North, Cincinnati OTR, Toledo downtown | Case by case |
| Ground-up construction | Delaware, Union, Licking and Fayette county infill | Up to 95% LTC |
| Portfolio / blanket | Youngstown, Toledo and Dayton rental roll-ups | Case by case |
| Tax-deed and land-bank acquisitions | Cuyahoga, Mahoning and Stark county certificates | Clear title required at close |
Business-purpose loans only. We do not lend on owner-occupied primary residences under this program.
Our Ohio program starts at 7.875% with 1 to 3 points. Where you land inside that range depends on leverage, your track record and the exit. A 95% LTC first-timer prices differently than an 80% LTC investor on their eighth deal. One Ohio-specific note: on loan amounts under $100,000 — common in Canton, Youngstown and Toledo — pricing also has to respect R.C. 1343.01, which is why the exemption analysis happens before the term sheet.
Yes. We fund 100% of the renovation budget, released in draws against inspection, alongside up to 90% of the purchase price — capped at 95% loan-to-cost and 75% of after-repair value. In Ohio’s low-basis markets the rehab is frequently larger than the purchase, and that deal shape is precisely what conventional financing cannot handle.
Ohio is a judicial foreclosure state: 6 months to 2 years, with a court filing, a 28-day answer period, and a sheriff’s sale that cannot go below two-thirds of appraised value. Lenders price the recovery timeline into every loan, so an Ohio note will generally carry slightly tighter terms than the same deal in a non-judicial state like Tennessee or Texas. The upside is that the same slow pipeline is what generates Ohio’s deep distressed inventory.
Yes — Cleveland is one of our most active Ohio markets, and Cuyahoga County’s 9.5% gross rental yield is a large part of why. We do underwrite condition and neighborhood carefully at very low bases, and on sub-$60,000 purchase prices we will usually want a stronger rehab scope and a clearer exit. ATTOM’s national data shows flips purchased under $50,000 lost roughly 14% in Q1 2026, so the caution is data-driven, not arbitrary.
Columbus if you want growth — it added 21,312 residents in a single year and sits in the Intel, Anduril, AWS and Honda/LG labor shed. Cleveland if you want flip volume with a real BRRRR exit — 12.1% of sales are flips, the highest of any U.S. metro over one million people, at a $148,169 basis appreciating 10.7%. Dayton if you want yield with population growth behind it — 10.4% gross yield and +5,604 residents. Akron if you want the shortest hold, at 25 days on market.
Materially. Four bills took effect March 18, 2026, with H.B. 186 effective December 2025. H.B. 186 creates credits for districts at millage floors and eliminates the nonbusiness credit for residential properties, including multi-family condos. H.B. 124 replaces state valuation samples with county auditors’ property sales samples. H.B. 129 includes fixed-sum levies in the school district 20-mill floor calculation starting tax year 2026. H.B. 309 and H.B. 335 give county budget commissions annual levy adjustment authority and cap inside-millage revenue growth. If your tax line came from a pre-2026 comparable, re-pull it.
Yes, and in Ohio it is usually the plan rather than the fallback. Once the property is rehabbed and leased, we refinance into a DSCR loan qualified on the property’s rent rather than your tax returns, up to 85% LTV with 30- or 40-year amortization. The calculator above models exactly this cycle — the number to watch is “cash left in the deal” after the refinance.
Yes. A large share of Ohio hard money volume comes from investors on the coasts buying into the yield. Two pieces of advice from the file: hire a local property manager before you close, not after, and model the 1.36% property tax rate rather than the rate from wherever you live. Those two mistakes account for most of the out-of-state Ohio deals that go sideways.
Direct lender since 1998. NMLS #1826020. Rates from 7.875%, up to 95% LTC, 100% of rehab, funding in as few as five business days across all 88 Ohio counties.
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