New From Chicago - FHA 203k for first deal?

[Lisa Maceda]

Greetings all! My name is Lisa and I currently live in the West Loop area of Chicago and work as an interior designer. My boyfriend and I are in the stage of gathering information and formulating a plan to begin flipping in our spare time which will hopefully snowball into a full time gig. He's the numbers guy and I have experience with construction and aesthetics so we will make a good team. We are thinking of rolling buying our first home in with our first "deal" as a somewhat safe way to get our feet wet. We are thinking of going the FHA 203k route in one of the nicer areas west of the city (Oak Park, Elmwood Park, Riverside, etc) so that we can take advantage of the lower down payment, rehab loan, etc. After living there for a year or so, if we goofed up and can't sell it, then at least we have a place to live! Has anyone else done this or thought about it? We know it makes for a slow start, but we don't have the traditional 20% down nor the reserves to take on reno. Ideally, this deal will work out in our favor and we can start financing much quicker deals. Also, if anyone has a recommendation for someone they have worked with on getting a 203k (we are thinking streamline at this point) loan, please send me a message.

[Tim G.]

I think its a great way to get started.

When you are new, you are have time you have credit (hopefully) and you are willing to put work in. So, why not use someone else's money (which the newbies usually don't have a lot of) to get things rolling.

I'm on my second rehab loan right now, my fourplex is nearly done and a second investment house is utilizing a similar loan but with 20% down this time.

I say go for it. One thing to really consider is avoid a non-streamlined 203K at ALL COSTS. Make sure your lender really specializes in these loans as they are known to go *** up in escrow all the time and that scares sellers from even accepting those offers.

Be on top of your game, move lightening fast when they ask you for anything and make sure you have a solid contractor who is tech savvy and can handle all of the paperwork requests.

Let me know if you need any advice I'm knee deep in it as you can tell :)