All Forum Posts by: Cenddie Alaban

@Yulia Jenner Noise is a concern for us because we homeschool. They're mostly in the house in a weeks time compared to kids who go to school. I found a 3 flat with a duplex in the front and a coach house at the back last month. I planned to occupy the coach house but I pass because of the neighborhood. These kind of properties seems unusual but I might get lucky.

I would prefer a property with tenants. The place is livable to great condition and you will have no effort in finding tenants. All I have to do is go to Perfect Rent and screen my tenants after I got all their records from the seller.

@George Skidis I will hire property manager in the future when my properties reach 10 units. Right now, I'll make sacrifices and deal with discomfort brought about by tenants, the purpose being so that I will understand what the property manager is going thru in the future (I heard that from one BP Podcast). Rule #22, tenant screening through Rent Perfect and REIA membership discounts are very helpful information, thank you. I will remember these. What do you exactly mean by "If it needs work - there is opportunity." I look up "all thumbs" and I think I can do minor carpentry works.

@Arthur Banks I live at a peaceful area of Rogers Park for 6 years. A few blocks away at Howard Street is where the the action is, you know, shooting, fighting, drug dealing. I understand what you mean. But that's not what I really meant. BP Podcast 200, step five of investing in real estate is " Pick your Strategy, Pick your Niche." Brandon Turner added; "and stick to it." My Strategy I pick months ago is appreciation through buy and hold of rental properties (2-4 units). My idea of properties that will appreciate are areas with good amenities, low crime, high GreatSchool.org scores and areavibes.com summarize all of it. Well, I learn from Josh Dorkin you can't really know if an area will appreciate. What do you think? I always look at Zion and Milwaukee because of cashflow but I always tell myself to stick to my chosen strategy. I cannot be a Jack-of-all-trades, right? 

I guess they're not investors.

I got a real estate agent that showed me houses instead of Duplexes. I almost bought one house. After she showed me her first and last duplex, the agent never contacted me anymore. I did not buy it because it did not met my criteria.

@Luke Miller Thank you very much for sharing. Everything now is possible for me. I mean a lot of possibilities opened up.

@Colleen F. Did you grow to maturity (18 years old) in the Duplex? Your story is very encouraging. If you did grow in the duplex, it would be worth it to go 10% over my Max mortgage.

Thank you BP members and investors for sharing your experiences, knowledge, expertise and opinions.  

@Luke Miller It's very comforting to know that at least one investor experienced a similar situation I am right now. I'll inform my tenants at the outset that I have kids that would scream and jump around. Set their expectations from the very beginning.

@Corina Eufinger There's a duplex with a garage in between? That's  a brilliant idea. I'll look for it. I have the same concern with you, changing locations can be strenuous for the kids. The duplex should be a place where I grow my kids for 10-15 years. It looks possible as Mr. Lucas Miller and @Colleen F. have shared. A stacked Duplex won't be a problem either. 

@Marcus Auerbach I believe, I have to follow what my investor-agent told me. My wife and I believe that he's a good and caring agent, he even shared how he calculate rental properties. We considered to pull out when he estimated the rehab to be between $50,000-70,000. That would be, according to your formula, between 10 to 14 weeks!

@Arthur Banks I think you're right that I will attract tenants with kids. Even BP Podcast 78 seem to imply that investors with dogs attract tenants with dogs. I already looked at Zion and Waukegan, it has good cash-flow, and it's attractive. However, I would prefer to raise my kids in neighborhood with livability score of 71 and up according to http://www.areavibes.com/. Most of my friends live in these areas.

@Zach Scheer That's part of my plan, buy or rent a single house after a year. However, already two investors seem to imply that it's possible to live in the Duplex until the kids are grown.

@John Warren Definitely I'll be looking in the neighborhood that I like. I already found a duplex at Tinley Park that's under short sale process. I don't know if it's advisable for newbie. It looks like 3-4 units will cash-flow better but it's more expensive at upscale neighborhood.

Thank you for your reply Ms Greathouse. You got one of my purpose in buying a duplex, that is to increase my income. Actually, my savings is in the form of stocks and mutual funds. It has actually grown this year but it's steady growth right now is a result of tons of mistakes in stock investing for the last 9 years. And that made me reluctant to invest in real estate because I know I have to make mistakes to be successful and I will make mistakes. Here in Illinois, I believe, that most of multifamilies are stack up on each other, unlike in Kenosha Wisconsin where duplexes are side by side. Probably, that's why they call it two flats. The problem with stack up multifamilies is that even your on the third floor you can still hear what the second floor is doing. For example, I complained to the management that our neighbor downstairs are playing music too loud and arguing too often. That is after they complain we're so noisy.

Thanks for your advice John, you seem to resonate with what Larry Loftis, author of a book about multifamily investing. Building good relationship would be beneficial, the tenant will take care of your properties and would be open to any discussions. I'll follow this advice.

Hi everybody, my name is Vic Alaban and I’m new to BP. I'm not really comfortable sharing my life in public especially that I'm an introvert but it's Brie Schmidt that advises me to do so. I believe that she's got deep humility to accept that she don't know it all.

The idea of buying a house dawn on us when our first floor neighbor finally moved out because she can't take the noise made by our second floor neighbor and more importantly, when the latter (the second floor neighbor) complained to the management about us on the third floor being noisy. We are a family of five, my children age 14, 10 and 5 and you know why the noise. We attended a home ownership program last February, 2017 and one agent asked; "Why not a 2 flat?" And tell us she own one. Although she's a highly productive agent, making more than $50 Million in sales last year, she's not an investor thus, don't really understand my need. I misinterpreted what she said in the meeting when she said she "used to" own a 2 flat.

Now, I'm on my own for the last 4 months looking for a deal. I found another agent who said his an investor. Unfortunately, he always advice me that the properties we're looking at needs extensive repairs and he even would not buy it. So, again I'm on my own.

I believe the source of fund is not a problem because I have no debt, no car or any monthly payments, a credit score of 813, savings of 35k and was approved for $200K for a duplex. The only snag is my income; I only make $36,000 a year.

I live at Rogers Park in Chicago, IL and would accept to live anywhere 50 minutes drive from O'Hare airport.

I have looked at Kenosha, but my partner doesn’t like a property I like because it has no backyard. The North Side of Chicago is too expensive. I'm looking into a rehab duplex in this area but I have zero experience in rehab nor am I a handyman. Foreclosures are good candidate but I also have no idea to do this.I guess I'm looking for an investor friendly agent who has experience in rehab or foreclosures of multifamily units.

A more important question I would like to ask is should I buy a single house or a duplex considering we are a family of five. I mean, speakers of the Podcasts I listened to have no kids. They don't have the problem of noisy kids or raising kids in general. Therefore, they can stay in a 2, 3, or 4 flats. I've got kids and I have worries about it. I wonder if any of BP investors have the same situation as mine where they have kids and live in one unit of their investment property.