Columbus Rentals Register by Dec. 31. Franklin County: 2,812 Listings

Final Values Expected in December. Columbus Rentals Register by December 31

Initial registration is required from October 1 through December 31, 2026, under Section 2 of Ordinance 0923-2026, which starts the registry with the 2027 calendar year. Columbus City Council approved the ordinance on April 20, 2026. It creates a registry of residential rental properties inside the city limits. The owner or local operator submits an application for each calendar year.

The duty to apply doesn't cover four kinds of property (Columbus City Code 4515.04(A)). They are vacant properties, or parts of them, subject to the Vacant Building Registry; properties, or parts of them, under hotel, motel or short-term rental permit requirements; dormitories as defined in Section 3303.04; and facilities licensed under Chapter 4561.

Registration costs $15.00 per unit each calendar year starting 2027, up to $1,500.00 per complex, under the city's fee schedule. A duplex with two rented units pays $30 a year. A complex of 100 rented units reaches the cap. Count your units. Registering late can cost 10% of the annual fees up to 120 days late, and 20% at 120 or more days late.

Registering means naming at least one local operator, unless you own fewer than ten total dwelling units and file a signed statement instead. A local operator is an individual with charge, care or control of the property whose primary residence is within 100 miles of Columbus. A property manager with a valid Ohio real estate license who otherwise meets that definition may count wherever they live (Columbus City Code 4515.03 and 4515.05(A)(6)).

The city's fact sheet for the ordinance adds that the registry creates a process for proactive inspections, with enhanced requirements for properties that have chronic or severe code violations.

The county has its own date. The Franklin County Auditor's Office expects final values from its 2026 Property Value Update in December, and if you still disagree after that, you can file a formal complaint with the Franklin County Board of Revision. The Auditor adds that a change in appraised value doesn't change taxes by the same percentage, because tax bills also turn on local rates and voter-approved levies.

Your first call is whether the rental still pays once the registry and the new values apply.

Listings Are Back to 2016 Levels. Price From Sales, Not Asking Prices

Franklin County had 2,812 active home listings in September 2026. That's up from 2,481 in September 2025 and 1,962 in September 2024. It's Realtor.com's count of active single-family and condo/townhome listings across the whole county, with pending listings left out. It isn't limited to rentals for sale.

That count is back near where the full series began, in July 2016. September 2016 already stood at 2,760. September counts ran 1,381 to 1,566 from 2020 through 2023. Only August 2016, at 2,822, was higher in any month.

The price-cut count rose too. 1,748 Franklin County listings had their price reduced in September 2026, against 1,674 a year earlier, and only October 2025, at 1,758, was higher in any month. That's a count of listings cut during the month. Not a share of the 2,812.

The median asking price was $314,950, down from $332,950 a year earlier. It's a median across the county's listings. An asking price. Not a sale price. Median days on market was 46, against 43 a year earlier and 33 in September 2024. Its days-on-market clock runs from the list date to a closing, pending or off-market date, whichever the data shows.

For sale prices, use the Franklin County Auditor's Office. Its weekly home sales report, published October 11, 2026, lists the residential home sales recorded in Franklin County from October 2 through October 8: 385 sales, with a median sale price of $308,000. That's one week across the whole county. Don't subtract it from the asking median above. One is a week of sales, the other a month of listings. The report groups each sale's price and date by ZIP code, so you can read the sales in your rental's ZIP code.

As we see it, an asking price is just a number until a sale closes. Price a rental from what buyers have paid for homes like it, in the condition it's in, because we think buyers walk when a price doesn't fit what they see in person. If they walk through and nobody offers, we read that as the market saying your price is high next to the homes they chose instead. The days that count for you run from the day you list to the day the sale closes. Realtor.com's median can stop at pending.

With a Tenant in the Home, Pick Your Route, Then Plan the Notice

If a tenant lives in your home, Ohio's landlord-tenant law sets the notice for each visit. Unless it's an emergency or giving notice is impracticable, you must give the tenant reasonable notice of your intent to enter and may enter only at reasonable times, and twenty-four hours is presumed reasonable unless the evidence shows otherwise (Ohio Revised Code 5321.04(A)(8)). Your tenant can't unreasonably withhold consent for you to enter to let prospective or actual purchasers view the unit (Ohio Revised Code 5321.05(B)).

Plan the notice for our walk-through and any buyer visit. Even a visit lasting 10 to 15 minutes needs the notice the law requires.

You get both offers together: the Fast Cash Offer, where Cash Flow Deals buys your house as-is and closes, and the Premium Cash Offer, where a pre-approved FHA or conventional buyer we already have, ready to go, pays more and buys directly from you. You choose which fits your needs.

We cover repair costs, and we figure out a way, so nothing comes out of your pocket. With Premium, only what the buyer's lender requires gets fixed; we cover those costs up front and settle them from the sale proceeds, from our share rather than your number. With Fast Cash, we buy as-is, with no repairs for you to make.

The number is agreed before any work starts, and it changes only if you agree. The one exception: if something structural surfaces that was not visible or disclosed before we signed — foundation issues, hidden moisture, old wiring, cast-iron drain failure — we re-cost it and bring the number back to you. You decide. You can walk away. We disclose what we know at offer time so this almost never happens. This applies to both offers.

If your Premium buyer's loan falls through, that is our problem, not yours, and you can still take the Fast Cash Offer at its own number. You can compare the Fast Cash Offer and Premium Cash Offer again before deciding.

Cash Flow Deals terms, in order:

1. Inspection period: the Fast Cash Offer includes 15 business days of inspection. Your Premium inspection period is set out in your written agreement.

2. Closing date: 45 days or less; you help pick the date. Review the timing for your chosen offer in your written agreement.

3. Fast Cash Offer and Premium Cash Offer: compare our as-is purchase with the higher amount from a pre-approved buyer who buys directly from you. Our as-is purchase includes one walk-through by our team.

4. Premium process: you sign with us at the number you agree to and give us permission to bring in a buyer in our place. When the pre-approved FHA or conventional buyer we already have, ready to go, is ready to sign, that buyer signs a new contract directly with you. Title transfers once, from you to the buyer, and the buyer's lender funds it.

5. Financing: review the buyer's financing and the terms of your chosen offer in writing before you sign.

6. Fees: no commission to Cash Flow Deals on the Fast Cash Offer. On the Premium Cash Offer, Cash Flow Deals is paid as a separate line item on the closing statement.

7. Closing proceeds: amounts owed against your house are paid from the sale proceeds first. You then receive your agreed number, and we are paid last from what remains. The number is agreed before any work starts, and it changes only if you agree. The one exception: if something structural surfaces that was not visible or disclosed before we signed — foundation issues, hidden moisture, old wiring, cast-iron drain failure — we re-cost it and bring the number back to you. You decide. You can walk away. We disclose what we know at offer time so this almost never happens.

Put both written offers beside any other sale option you are considering. Compare what you would receive after costs and how the timing fits your needs. Then choose the option that works for you.