Newbie from Westmont, IL (Southwest Suburbs of Chicago)

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Hi Everyone! 

A little about myself,

Full time Engineer, part time real estate newbie. Spent many summers in high school working for my dad for his remodeling company. Lots of hands on/technical experience. I've worked alongside my dad as he helped other investors and real estate professionals flip homes and prepare rentals. Now that I have a full time career, income, and the ability to borrow money I felt like its the perfect time to put my experience to use to generate extra income. Bought my first home (short sale) in 2015 and finished renovations 6 months later (I'll post pics in the "Post your Pics" thread. I'm very excited to meet like minded, ambitious people in my area! I've been reading the forums for a couple months now, I know there's a few members here from the southwest suburbs. I'm mainly interested in flips to build up capital and then maybe diversifying into rentals for passive income. Is there any MeetUps or REI meetings going on in this area?

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Hi Jeremy,

Yes, Westmont is a good area with good opportunities, nice parks, and good schools (feeds into Downers Grove High School). A lot of the smaller homes are bought up by builders and torn down to make room for $700k+ homes. The new Mariano's on 63rd street has definitely brought some good activity to the area (even raising the values of the condos on Suffield). There's also a new senior assisted living complex going up on 63rd street in Downers Grove. It also appears that a new group of investors have bought "The Ponds" apartments on 67th and are aggressively cleaning them up. They renamed them "Westmont Village". They're almost done replacing all the roofs, gutters, downspouts, soffits, changing the landscaping, etc... Now if only someone would do something to that half vacant strip mall on 63rd and Cass that would be fantastic.