Cuyahoga County publishes a parcel roll that carries each owner's unpaid tax balance, and the City of Cleveland publishes its building violations, condemnations and board-ups as open data. Propertiz loads every parcel and owner from the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, about 513,000 parcels, reads the tax balances and Cleveland's code records every night, and ranks the owners in Cleveland and the rest of the county who may have a reason to sell. Here is what's on the Cuyahoga County page today and what isn't yet.
Unpaid property taxes on the county roll
The Fiscal Officer's parcel layer includes the Treasurer's delinquent balance for each parcel, and Propertiz reads it every day. It covers the whole county, Cleveland and its suburbs alike.
Ohio needs a careful reading here. A balance on an Ohio tax roll is often one missed half-year payment, so Propertiz counts an Ohio delinquency only when the parcel is certified delinquent or owes at least one full year's tax. Cuyahoga's layer has no certified-delinquent flag, so Propertiz uses two tests:
- the parcel's tax lien certificate has been sold, which Ohio allows only on certified-delinquent parcels (R.C. 5721.32), or
- the balance is at least one year's net tax on the parcel.
Balances under $100 are left out as noise. Two or more years owed weighs more than one. Only the newest snapshot counts, so a parcel that pays off drops out.
The Cuyahoga Treasurer also sells tax lien certificates in bulk sales of several thousand parcels. A certificate holder can foreclose after a one-year wait, and tax foreclosures end in a sheriff sale like mortgage foreclosures. Our guide to Ohio foreclosure and tax delinquency walks through each route.
Cleveland building violations, condemnations and board-ups
Inside the City of Cleveland, three city datasets add code signals:
- Building violations. Propertiz keeps the property-condition types, such as exterior and interior maintenance, condemnation, fire damage, hazardous conditions, orders to vacate, illegal occupancy and lead. It leaves out violations about elevators, registration, permits, zoning, signs, fences and stop-work orders.
- Condemnations currently in force.
- Board-ups, where the city secured an open, vacant or vandalized structure.
Every record carries the county parcel number, so it is tied to the right property without guessing from an address. Open cases count as distress and fade as they age.
Contains information from City of Cleveland Open Data (opendataCLE), made available under the Open Database License (ODbL).
Owners and mailing addresses
The Fiscal Officer's roll has the owner, the owner's own mailing address, the site address, the last sale, the land use, the market value, living area, room count and year built. It doesn't carry bedroom or bath counts, so bedrooms are estimated. The mailing address on this roll is the owner's, kept apart from the tax-bill and escrow fields, so the absentee and out-of-state flags describe the owner.
Cuyahoga's homestead flag marks Ohio's senior and disabled exemption, so a parcel without it can still be owner-occupied, and Propertiz doesn't count a missing exemption against the owner.
What isn't in Cuyahoga County yet
- Foreclosure filings. Ohio forecloses through the courts, and the Common Pleas docket asks a verification question before any search, so Propertiz doesn't read it.
- Sheriff sale dates.
- Code cases outside the City of Cleveland.
- Probate filings.
- Evictions.
How Cleveland leads are ranked
The rules are the same in every Propertiz county. A lead needs at least one active distress signal: unpaid taxes that pass the Ohio test, or an open Cleveland violation, condemnation or board-up. Owner traits then add points, such as an absentee or out-of-state owner, long ownership and high estimated equity. Points from different signals add up, so a tax balance and a code case on the same property score higher than either one alone.
Every lead is underwritten as a long-term rental with an equity estimate, a HUD market rent and a DSCR at your purchase price. Ohio taxes the county auditor's value, and a sale can trigger a new appraisal, so today's bill can understate a new owner's. Try your own numbers in the DSCR calculator.
Working Cuyahoga leads
All data is public under Ohio's Public Records Act (R.C. 149.43). Contact owners respectfully. Mail first; follow federal rules (TCPA, Do Not Call) and Ohio's telephone-solicitation law (R.C. Chapter 4719) for calls and texts. No leaseback or "save your home" offers to owners in foreclosure. If you assign contracts, Ohio requires a written wholesaler disclosure to the seller.
See the other Ohio counties on the Ohio coverage page.