Hello From Chicagoland Investor

[Timothy C.]

Just signed up after being an avid BP reader for the past couple months.

Trying to get started in the area surrounding my home in the Chicago suburbs.

Up until a few months ago I had no RE background, other than helping my dad rehab a half dozen homes 25 years ago. After reading The Book on Flipping Houses, and what seems like a hundred articles on BP, I'm trying to buy right on the first deal. I'm beginning to establish a team, including a general contractor who has worked successfully with investors in the past, as well as a great Realtor. Financing is questionable, so that's my first and biggest hurdle to getting my feet wet. I do have an interested partner with cash, but we're not entirely on the same page with our target properties.

We've done a walk through on five homes in the area. The numbers have not worked out where we're ready to pull the trigger on any of them so far. Based on the daily reports from the MLS, inventory is quite low in the sectors I'm filtering on, so I may need to adapt (and while I'm all for it, that's where myself and the partner with the cash diverge - so I'm considering getting pre-qualified/pre-approved for financing).

I've done software development for 15 years, and an additional three as a project manager. I'm looking to build a business, and I'm trying to be open minded about the approach, whether flipping homes, multifamily rentals, both, or whatever approach seems feasible. Since I need to start out with something affordable, I'm not sure that multifamily properties are on the radar. I foresee flipping one home, reinvesting all the profits into more of the same, building to as many as I can responsibly manage at the same time. At some point down that path I foresee a percentage of the profits being set aside toward a multifamily property purchase. Ideally revenue from that would help to purchase the next one quicker, and so on.

I hope to bounce the many questions I have off this community, and I have confidence I'll get great feedback, since lurking on the forums has already set my thoughts straight on several topics. Hopefully the day will come that I can be on the other end of that feedback!