Family of five to live and own a duplex

[Cenddie Alaban]

Hi everybody, my name is Vic Alaban and I’m new to BP. I'm not really comfortable sharing my life in public especially that I'm an introvert but it's Brie Schmidt that advises me to do so. I believe that she's got deep humility to accept that she don't know it all.

The idea of buying a house dawn on us when our first floor neighbor finally moved out because she can't take the noise made by our second floor neighbor and more importantly, when the latter (the second floor neighbor) complained to the management about us on the third floor being noisy. We are a family of five, my children age 14, 10 and 5 and you know why the noise. We attended a home ownership program last February, 2017 and one agent asked; "Why not a 2 flat?" And tell us she own one. Although she's a highly productive agent, making more than $50 Million in sales last year, she's not an investor thus, don't really understand my need. I misinterpreted what she said in the meeting when she said she "used to" own a 2 flat.

Now, I'm on my own for the last 4 months looking for a deal. I found another agent who said his an investor. Unfortunately, he always advice me that the properties we're looking at needs extensive repairs and he even would not buy it. So, again I'm on my own.

I believe the source of fund is not a problem because I have no debt, no car or any monthly payments, a credit score of 813, savings of 35k and was approved for $200K for a duplex. The only snag is my income; I only make $36,000 a year.

I live at Rogers Park in Chicago, IL and would accept to live anywhere 50 minutes drive from O'Hare airport.

I have looked at Kenosha, but my partner doesn’t like a property I like because it has no backyard. The North Side of Chicago is too expensive. I'm looking into a rehab duplex in this area but I have zero experience in rehab nor am I a handyman. Foreclosures are good candidate but I also have no idea to do this.I guess I'm looking for an investor friendly agent who has experience in rehab or foreclosures of multifamily units.

A more important question I would like to ask is should I buy a single house or a duplex considering we are a family of five. I mean, speakers of the Podcasts I listened to have no kids. They don't have the problem of noisy kids or raising kids in general. Therefore, they can stay in a 2, 3, or 4 flats. I've got kids and I have worries about it. I wonder if any of BP investors have the same situation as mine where they have kids and live in one unit of their investment property.

[Colleen F.]

I grew up in a two family up/ down as one of seven kids. We were in the downstairs unit. my parents had very good tenants who also had kids. if your kids arent brats they will make normal noise. Tenants should be able to live with that. If they dont want to they will find a different place. Be upfront about it. Of course a side by side might work better but it can done. You are living in an apartment now, if you buy you can have a choice on who you share walls with.