All Forum Posts by: Andrew Holmes

@Sam Tomar - Hopefully you contacted @Mark Ainley. He has an excellent podcast dedicated to chicago real estate dial into that will give you tons of info. Based on your numbers you can do better with no associations and some debt on the properties. A number of folks suggested it already. In the Chicago suburbs your Cash On Cash return with some debt needs to be minimum of 20% + with DCR of 1.33 minium.

@Jose Garcia @Jonathan Klemm made some good points. With an investor you have to pick your poison. With a home buyer it's a different poison. I don't mean to sound jaded but here is the reality. It's hard to serve the investor community and sell retail at the same time. Just my opinion. Granted I have not sold real estate since 2008 before that all I did was listings because buyers took too much time. I was the king of prospecting and everyone hated it so it worked for me. 

Most investors are a pain because most of them have no clue and have their own ideas. They are not going to listen if you try to explain. Much better to meet a handful of good investors along the way. They know what they want and as you get to know them you will get a feel for what they look for. Once you have that it's easy to cater to them because they will be pain free. Quick decision makers and know exactly if the property will work for them. 

Quite honestly working with investors is tricky. Can be profitable but it's better to work with a handful that are loyal and will come back and re list with you on the sale side when they are doing flips. I would concentrate on retail and build a core investor business on the side. Quality than quantity with investors is important. 

Biggest value you can bring is know the markets you work like the back of your hand. It's important to know the inventory what something will really sell for and what a property can be rehabbed for as an investor but retail pricing. Even with a lot of contractor their pricing is close to retail not what we would want the work done for. Specially in a changing market you will provide tremendous value for folk you understand the knowledge you can lend to them. 

@Gregory J Galica Sr Talk to Steve Budzik at icandy realty he is a great guy and an investor be very investor friendly and knows what he is doing both on the brokerage side as well as an investor. 

@Atul Mohlajee - Here in the Chicago market I allow pets as long as they are not one of the 7 breeds that are not covered by our insurance provider. With over 200 + properties in the market we have found generally. This is a very general statement that pet owner to the most part that are well screened are good tenants. I was against it about 10 years ago but over the past 10+ years we have been allowing them and we charge 35 to 75 extra pet rent. 

Please DM me will send it to you. 👍

@Faraz Tariq - There is a company called Kensington Research & Recovery. If you are concerned about taxes call them. I think it's against BP policy to post a number here. You can DM me and I can have somone in my office send it to you. We have about 230+ plus properties and all of the tax appeals are handled by them. I believe they change 1/3 of the savings. Each year they monitor the files, Proposed increases and assessed values. They only appeal if you need it. It's easy to miss the deadline in all the Townships to it's easier to just have the entire portfolio with them because their is no cost unless you save. They do thousands of these so they will be your best bet to chat. Hope that helps. 

@Jonathan Klemm Not sure if they are going after the Licensing issue or if there was something that was a red flag in these transaction. I think from what I can tell. Someone gets mad about something or unfair and that is what sets of a chain reaction. 

A lot of times from what I have seen Wholesalers don't understand the rules and issues around earnest money etc. A lot of the issues come from Daisy chain deals. Representations are made to the sellers or the buyers and the rules around licensure law are not understood. 

Just thought I would post this. In the last couple of weeks I have had at least 4 wholesalers reach out with properties that they have under contract or with properties that they closed and IDFPR investigator called them to followup regarding those transactions. Just through I would give a heads up to folks here. 

Please get your real estate license and do it by the book if you are going to wholesale in IL. It is easy, there are rules just follow the rules and there won't be any issues. I know a lot of wholesalers get mad when I have said this but I have a real estate license and it much easier to work within the rules rather than keep trying to find loopholes around it. 

IDFPR seems to be pretty vigilant on this issue specially if someone complains. Last year in Dec 2020 I got a call on one of our properties that we had listed in the MLS. Someone apparently was pretending to have it under contract and wholesale to a buyer and taking earnest money. Obviously if an investigator from IDFPR calls you, it gets your attention. We followed up and found out that someone was acting as a wholesaler on the property and we had no clue. So the whole thing was a complete surprise. I just wanted to make sure we had all our paperwork straight and it was not an issue. This is a property we owned that we were selling.

The rule in IL is 1 wholesale anything more is a business and you need to be a Licensed Real Estate Broker. Anyone that is serious and truly wants to do a wholesale just get a license it's not difficult and do it right.  

@Frank S. - If you want to reach out to Advanced Windows. They are a local manufacturer they can get you a window. They are fair priced compared to a name brand. Have different grades of windows. They also have installers they can recommend. Hope that helps. You can find them in google. 

@Peter Nicieja - @Mark Ainley podcast is excellent resource because it is so specific to the Chicago Market. A lot of folk have made excellent suggestions. Still some good 3-4 House hack available. You may have to be a bit flexible. There was one we just wholesaled just north of Oak Park. They come up you may have to do a bit of digging. But you seem like someone who is not afraid to learn. If you are willing to put a bit of time into it some good off market opportunities out there. The one I am talking about was a short sale due to some health issues. As tough as it may seem even this market there are a ton of people selling off market. Some people just don't want to list their properties for what ever reason. Always seems strange to me when there is equity but it's good for us to find deals that are under valued. The fight over deals is on the MLS generally not off market.