Newbie from Naperville, Illinois

[Isaac Lane]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Isaac Lane and I'm from the western suburbs of Chicago. I'm a mechanical engineer that is striving for financial independence and see real estate investing as a great avenue for it! Over the past year and half, I've been vigorously educating myself about real estate investing whether it be listening to the BP podcasts or reading books like "The Book on Rental Property Investing" by Brandon Turner.

I plan to purchase my first buy and hold multifamily property in April 2021 around the Chicagoland area. As I continue to prep to purchase my first property, I would l love to learn from people that are currently investing what they wish they knew going into their first deal?

I'd love to connect with anyone from the Chicagoland area or really anyone who's interested in networking. I look forward to it, Thank you!

[Julian Trillana]

Welcome to BP Isaac!

You're in the right place, there's a ton of great investors here in the Chicagoland area. Check out Mark Ainley and Tom Shallcross' "Straight up Chicago Investor" podcast as well! They dive deep into the different markets in and around Chicago.

I would get familiar with the village or town code you're considering investing in. Each one can have their own set of rules that you need to look out for (Bolingbrook requires landlords to complete a class and pay an annual landlord license fee, or another example is Berwyn requires permits for a lot of various work and contractors to be licensed and bonded to the city of Berwyn.) 

One "gotcha" moment was having to replace all the electrical wiring in my 3-flat here in Berwyn. I accounted for replacing the old electrical panels but didn't take a look at the actual wiring, which was outdated cloth wiring and could be a potential fire hazard. So performing a thorough due diligence is essential, and if you're looking into older multifamily properties I would pay attention to the condition of all the mechanicals.