I walked a 9-unit in Lancaster last Tuesday that rented for $595 average per door and the owner cleared $28,400 last year after everything.

The $28,400 NOI is doing a lot of work in your 8-cap math, so the first thing a careful operator confirms is whether that number is cash NOI or owner-reported income with deferred maintenance and self-managed labor backed out. A 9-unit where the owner handles maintenance personally can show $28k on paper and deliver $18k to a third-party manager.

Checklist before making an offer at that price point: pull the actual rent rolls against lease agreements, not just the owner's summary; get a 24-month utility and repair ledger; confirm the vacancy rate against county auditor transfer records to see how long units sat between tenants; ask for the insurance loss runs, because one water claim tells you more about deferred maintenance than a walkthrough does; and check whether Lancaster city code has any outstanding violations tied to the parcel, since secondary Ohio cities have been tightening rental registration enforcement.

The signal from move-out cleans is real but cuts two ways, because a market where someone is buying, renovating and re-tenanting is also a market where rents could run ahead of what existing tenants can absorb, which compresses your stabilized occupancy faster than a Columbus submarket with deeper renter demand. What is the average household income in the zip codes where you are seeing the most turnover activity?

The signal you're reading is real. Move-out cleans stacking up before listings appear is one of the cleaner leading indicators available to someone doing punch list work, because you're seeing the activity before the MLS does.

The assumption doing the most work in your math is the 8 cap holding at acquisition. At $595 average rent on 9 doors, gross potential is around $64,260 annually. Getting to $28,400 NOI means expenses are running roughly 56 percent of gross, which is plausible for a smaller Ohio market but not conservative. If actual expenses run closer to 60 to 62 percent, which is more typical once you include vacancy, maintenance reserves and management, your NOI compresses to the low-to-mid $24k range and the same 8 cap pushes the defensible purchase price closer to $300k. That gap matters when you're building a downpayment thesis.

The risk you didn't mention: commercial financing on a 5-plus unit asset is underwritten on the property's income, and at a $380k purchase the debt service coverage ratio becomes the hard constraint, not your personal credit. DSCR requirements vary by lender and loan type, and at current commercial rates the NOI on this asset may be thin enough that some lenders won't get there at standard LTV. Confirm with a commercial lender what DSCR floor they're working to and what they'll lend at on a sub-$400k secondary-market multifamily before you build the downpayment target around a specific number. Tax and structuring questions go to a CPA and real estate attorney.

The $30k figure you're working toward, is that going toward down payment only, or are you reserving separately for closing costs and a capital buffer, because commercial deals in this range typically carry higher closing costs than residential and lenders often want to see post-close liquidity?