Chicago 4-Unit Rentability (Jefferson Park)

[Jason Krasavage]

Hey all, and happy 4th of July! I am currently under contract for my first investment property. It is a 4-Unit on a double wide lot in Jefferson Park, that would be owner occupied by myself and my significant other. The property is a 12-15 minute walk from the blue line, metra stop, and bus stops. As far as commutability it is as good as it gets almost! 

We have enough cash to bring to closing, with plenty of reserves leftover, so of course our biggest liability is getting and then keeping this place rented. The vacancy rate is what either makes this property flow positive for us each month (even while living in it), rely on some of the money we used to use for rent to break even on PITI, or suck us dry of all our hard earned money. So naturally I am worried about it renting (fear creeps in!).

For those that have invested in this neighborhood, what has your experience been with filling your units and what has your vacancy rate been like? This property has a very large and spacious 3 bed 1 bath on the first floor, a 2 bed 1 bath upstairs rear, and a 1 bed 1 bath upstairs front. We would be in the 1 bed 1 bath basement unit. Since it's double wide, in addition to the 2 car garage for us, there are 3 uncovered parking spaces, coin laundry in the basement, and tenants would only pay for electric (heat is a boiler system and there is only 1 gas meter stoves are all electric, and there are large electric ac units sealed into the walls in all units). I would  "bake" into the rent my monthly overhead for the other utilities.   

Any opinions and thoughts on renting out units in this area and on this investment as a whole are greatly appreciated! Please let me know if you want any other information. Thank you in advance. 

[John Warren]

@Jason Krasavage congrats on getting a 4 unit under contract! That is not easy to do these days. I wouldn't worry too much about vacancy. In Jefferson Park you shouldn't have issues getting qualified tenants in a few weeks as long as you are priced correctly. Most investors are running a 5% vacancy rate in that area, but that is probably overly conservative and I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up seeing 2-3% vacancy in real life.