Why OREIA Exists
OREIA is a non-profit business league dedicated to uniting and supporting real estate investors, landlords, and entrepreneurs. Since 1989, we’ve strengthened the businesses of Ohio housing providers through our local associations, annual conferences, and legislative activities, vendor resources, and trainings.
We believe that a vibrant housing market is key to the economic and cultural strength of our neighborhoods, our cities, our state, and our region.
We have seen that educated, ethical real estate entrepreneurs have proven to be a crucial component of the health that housing market, whether they provide affordable rentals, renovate housing for resale, assist buyers in achieving the American dream through lease/purchase arrangements and owner financing, or invest more passively in real estate-secured financing.
We believe that real estate investment and entrepreneurship is a time-tested, honorable, commendable, and realistic way for American to achieve personal wealth and financial freedom.
We believe that the biggest threat to housing and real estate entrepreneurship in our country today is over-regulation in the form of increasing taxes, fees, and licensing costs, and in the form of burdensome laws and ordinances that make private investment in the ownership and renovation of housing less attractive to the average person.
We believe that people who provide housing in any form must be active, educated, and united in their desire to forward the reputation, professionalism, and political voice of the entire industry.
Our Vision Leads to Our Mission
OREIA's mission is to:
- Provide education and training to new and active real estate entrepreneurs, through strengthening local associations, offering online educational opportunities, and, of course, OREIA's own annual conference.
- Promote professionalism within the real estate investing community by promulgating ethical standards and by providing members with the opportunity to achieve the Ohio Professional Housing Provider (OPHP) educational designation
- Contribute to the positive image of the individual real estate entrepreneur by communicating the crucial economic and civic importance of the activities of our members in investing in, rehabilitating, and managing housing in Ohio
- Build a more positive legislative and regulatory environment for real estate entrepreneurs by lobbying for the interests of Ohio housing, training our members to be good grass-roots advocates for their business, and creating and maintaining strategic relationships with organizations that share our goals and values.
Statement of Principles
The Ohio Real Estate Investors Association (OREIA) believes that property rights are human rights.
The ability to own, use, and transfer property is not merely an economic convenience—it is a core component of individual freedom, dignity, and security. Property rights protect a person’s ability to control the fruits of their labor, to provide for their family, to build generational wealth, and to live free from arbitrary interference or dispossession.
In fact, property rights are recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms that “everyone has the right to own property” and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.” Without secure rights to property, there can be no true liberty, no self-determination, and no meaningful prosperity.
OREIA exists to support and protect these rights for all Ohioans—and to represent the tens of thousands of responsible investors who help provide safe, quality housing to both renters and home buyers throughout the state.
We believe that real estate investors are essential to Ohio’s housing market. Our members take risks, invest capital, and solve complex problems to bring homes back to life, build new housing stock, and offer rental and ownership opportunities across communities. We fill a role that neither the government nor the nonprofit sector can fully meet.
We affirm that:
- Private property rights are foundational to freedom, opportunity, and community stability. They empower individuals to create value, build wealth, and make choices about their own lives.
- Real estate investors are housing providers. We are a critical part of solving Ohio’s housing challenges—not a cause of them.
- Excessive regulation, taxation, and bureaucracy increase the cost of housing and reduce its availability. Every unnecessary burden placed on those who create and maintain housing results in higher prices, fewer homes, and diminished investment.
- Markets—not mandates—create better housing outcomes. Government interference often leads to unintended consequences like increased homelessness, housing shortages, and urban decline.
OREIA supports policies that:
- Protect and strengthen private property rights;
- Encourage investment in housing by removing unnecessary barriers;
- Ensure fairness, due process, and predictability for housing providers;
- Treat real estate entrepreneurs with the respect and legal protections they deserve.
We are committed to education, advocacy, and action to ensure that Ohio remains a place where housing providers are supported, entrepreneurship in real estate is encouraged, and property rights are defended as the human rights they truly are.
If You Believe Like Us, Join Us
Your membership fees don't just get you resources to grow your own business, but also help make Ohio a better, more investor-friendly, more profitable place for you to buy, sell, and hold real estate.