All Forum Posts by: Andrew Hargreave

I would chime in as well.  I live just South of Naperville.  Naperville is a very high class area but there are neighboring villages next to it that might offer a better investment opportunity.  I haven't looked at many multi-family in the local burbs.

My full time W2 job's headquarters are downtown Cincinnati and I looked for over a year trying to find a multi-family that would let me rent out 2 or 3 units and live in one when I travel there on a monthly basis.   Let me tell you  that the multi-family market in the Cincinnati area is nuts!   I had 4 different quad's under contract and after inspections on each showed needed repairs of $50k to $100k, there was no way they could be profitable.  The sellers were selling these quads for $100k to $150k more then they had paid for them just 1 or 2 years earlier and basically did cheap painting.  I just gave up trying to find anything there.  There's business moving into that area as well as the new soccer team/stadium and folks are trying to cash in.  I even looked over in Covington KY but same issues.   I really like the area but I couldn't find anything that I could break even on.

I saw this on realtor.com yesterday and was curious about the flipped $ for the bedrooms.  Is it true that you get more on the 1BR than the 2BR?

Just adding to the thread with my GC experience.  We bought a SFM in the South Deering area back in 12/2016 that GC had done the rehab on.  They had some PM issues in the first year but they hired a new general PM to oversee the operation and things have been great since.  Our's is a Sec8 property and the renter signed a 1yr initial lease and then renewed for another year.  GC just let me know they signed a 2yr lease this time.  Since it's Sec8, raising rent isn't advised since it invites re-analysis by the city which can get sticky.    As Ryan mentioned, they most common charge is the $39 for the maint person to go fix something minor.  I've had a recent unexpected plumbing issue where the main needed to be rodded out to clear a buildup (the house was built in 1930's).  Other than that, very little maintenance has been needed.

I used my own financing with a local bank that I have my primary residence mortgage with so the fees and such were a little discounted and I didn't have add'l hits to my credit since they already had my information (I had just refi'd with them 3 months earlier).

If I was doing any more investing in IL, I would consider GC before anything else.  It really has been pretty passive which is what I wanted.

GC has continued to be a great PM for our property.  The tenants just renewed their lease for 2 more years.  Even being Sec8, they pay on time for their portion and the city pays the rest on time as well.  

@Brandon Hall, I PM'd you a very reputable PM company in the Cinci area I've been working with.

@Ho Eun Park, I would be wary of Chicago.  The state of IL is in a dire tax/pension crisis and both Gov candidates acknowledge that property taxes are going to be going up as one of the best ways to try and make up the debt load the state has.  The other avenue is going to be either even more fuel tax or a per-mile driven tax.   There are more people leaving IL each year than move to IL.

That being said, I have a Sec8 Turnkey SFH on the South side of Chicago that's been doing ok for the last 1.75 years but the taxes did go up (PM is filing to get them reduced). You really have to know the areas where you'll be investing.

We left State Farm after 30+ years when we got our first SFH in 2016. They were quoting me $2100/yr for an 800SqFt 2x1 home whereas my own 3100SqFt home was only $1900/yr. Their Umbrella rates were also through the roof..literally!

We went with Nationwide Private Client back then.  However now that I'm looking at 2-4 MFH's, Nationwide had been just out of the reasonable range as well.  I haven't found any of the national brands that are friendly.  I was going to look in the Cincinnati area when we finally found a property.  Thanks @Rob Wilcox for that referral, we'll call American Modern!

That's the Cinci market.  I've been on the hunt for quads for 5 months...I've contracted on a couple but then due diligence showed they didn't do any maintenance in 7 years and want double what they paid...or they bought it 12 months ago, did the lipstick paint job and also want double.  Inspections revealed another $40k to $60k in maintenance I'd get hit with..couldn't make those number works so we walked away.  They sold next day to another out of town investor who didn't do DD.  I don't know what to tell you WRT to your financial dilemma though.  That's tricky.  Good luck! 

Just curious..both the 1BR and the 3BR provide $1700 per month or is that total for both units?

Same here @Tom Shallcross, we have 1 SFH on the South Side and we had a large bump in assessed value. Our PM is filing an appeal as well to get it reduced but we'll see how successful they'll be.

I've lived in IL all my life (grew up in Southern IL and moved to Chicago area burbs for college and stayed).  I personally won't invest in IL because we're going to get taxed out the 'whazzoo' to get out of this hole the state Gov't dug for us.   I'm waiting for my last 2 kids to get out and then I'm looking to get out the state myself.  

My corp W2 job is based out of Cincinnati and I've been looking for multifamily's out there but the market is just insane as well....a 4 unit we looked at is selling for $60k more than the seller bought it for 1yr ago and only slapped a bad paintjob into the units and called it rehab.  I had a PM walk through with me and we found an estimated $20k to $30k in deferred maintenance that was going to hit me in the next 1 to 2 years and the seller's wouldn't budge on their price so we walked away.