Northern Kentucky Real Estate Investing: Lessons From a Wholesaler Turned Early Retiree

Episode 18 of the Cincy REI Show covers eight years of building, a single magic question, and a Newport neighborhood that went from $10,000 houses to $80,000 houses in less than a decade. Garth is a full-time wholesaler turned early retiree who transacted hundreds of times across Covington, Newport, Bellevue, and Dayton and knows Northern Kentucky's pockets better than almost anyone investing in Greater Cincinnati today.

What the episode covers

• One question: Garth's entire lead generation strategy eventually collapsed into "How long have you been thinking about selling your house?" Any answer besides "right now" or "sometime in the future" meant he got off the phone.
• The counterintuitive close: telling motivated sellers "you'll make more money with a realtor" and then going silent broke down skepticism faster than any pitch.
• From bandit signs to referrals: how Garth went from bandit signs and triple-line dialers to 100% referral by 2021, and why shrinking his team made him more profitable.
• Northern Kentucky geography: why Covington is more gerrymandered than a congressional district, where Mainstrasse Village stops (5th to 9th, Philadelphia to Main, and not a block west of 75), and why the six blocks south of 9th Street deserve their own Pendleton-style recognition.
• The Ovation effect: how a developer bought up Newport's old project housing after the crash, sat on it, and then triggered a westward wave of appreciation that turned $10,000 houses into $80,000 houses. Garth thinks all of Newport rode that wave, not just the blocks closest to the river.
• Flood zones in Bellevue: what flood zone means there in 2026 versus 2016, and why the 1997 waterline that used to kill deals is now a cheaper entry point into a river-access neighborhood.

Listen

Stream Episode 18 on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. For the Ohio side of the river, read Cincinnati wholesaling in 2026 with Dylan Koch.