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 the home, Ohio's landlord-tenant law sets the notice for each visit. Unless it's an emergency or giving notice is impracticable, a landlord must give the tenant reasonable notice of the 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)). The tenant can't unreasonably withhold consent for the landlord to enter to show the unit to prospective or actual purchasers (Ohio Revised Code 5321.05(B)).

A calendar you control. That's the win. Plan the notice for each visit: our one walk-through and every buyer an agent brings.

Two offers for your house, Cash or Premium, and you choose. A Premium sale's buyer comes from the pre-approved FHA or conventional buyers we already have, ready to go. While the 15 business days of inspection run, the home may be listed, and a licensed agent brings each buyer. We think the higher Premium number comes from exposure: the home in front of buyers whose lenders fund the purchase.

Cash Flow Deals terms, in order:

1. Inspection period, both offers: 15 business days of inspection.

2. Closing date, both offers: 45 days or less; the seller helps pick the date.

3. Cash offer: Cash Flow Deals buys the house as-is and closes. No listing. One walk-through by our team.

4. Premium offer: More money. A pre-approved FHA or conventional buyer we already have buys directly from you. During the 15 business days of inspection the home may be listed; a licensed agent brings each buyer, showings are scheduled ahead and take 10 to 15 minutes. You sign with us at the number you agree to and give us permission to bring in a buyer in our place. When a pre-approved FHA or conventional buyer is ready, that buyer signs a new contract directly with you. Title goes once, from you to the buyer, and the buyer's lender funds it.

5. If a Premium buyer's financing falls through, you can still take our Cash offer.

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

7. Your number: You get the amount you agree to, and we'll handle any costs on top of that. 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.

In our view, a listing trades time for price. Put both written offers beside it first. Then compare real numbers. If the listing still leaves you more after its days on market, list it.