All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

I was just going to say, you guys living in other states must be lucky. Every building in Chicago has an HOA. Some of the towers are as high as $800 a month in HOA dues. Each building has a 24 hour doorman, maintenance personnel, and a stationary engineer. It takes a lot to maintain a high rise, especially with things like multiple elevators, underground parking, and pools on the rooftops. Hell, my 1200sqft townhouse has $257/HOA fees. People in Chicago are used to this.

Wow Chris! Sounds like you're very active, especially while still holding down a full time career! I'll have to hit up the guys you mentioned and see when the next meeting is. I would love to see some before/after pics of your work. Do you act as your own GC?

I recently put an offer on a condo I want to flip. When I first walked in the A/C was on but it wasn't very cool at all. It's a foreclosure so I'm assuming someone from the HOA goes in there to turn it on and off and check up on things. I noticed very little to no air coming out of the vents. The A/C line going into the condenser had ice around it. I'm assuming the condenser is frozen up and freon is bypassing the condenser, which is also the cause for no air flow. The furnace is old and makes a ton of noise so it will definitely need to be replaced. The A/C compressors are on the roof (it's only 2 stories). I don't know if this thing is on all the time or if someone goes in the unit and turns it off. I would've turned everything off and let the fan run to at least let the ice thaw, but hey, I don't own the condo. What's the chance that I could just replace the furnace and that the A/C would be salvageable? What's the average price for a gas furnace replacement in a 1000sqft condo?

Hi Jeremy, Yes, Westmont is a good area with good opportunities, nice parks, and good schools (feeds into Downers Grove High School). A lot of the smaller homes are bought up by builders and torn down to make room for $700k+ homes. The new Mariano's on 63rd street has definitely brought some good activity to the area (even raising the values of the condos on Suffield). There's also a new senior assisted living complex going up on 63rd street in Downers Grove. It also appears that a new group of investors have bought "The Ponds" apartments on 67th and are aggressively cleaning them up. They renamed them "Westmont Village". They're almost done replacing all the roofs, gutters, downspouts, soffits, changing the landscaping, etc... Now if only someone would do something to that half vacant strip mall on 63rd and Cass that would be fantastic.

I've had the same situation, a kitchen that had linoleum flooring on top of a slab. There's no easy way to do it besides scraping and constantly spraying it with hot water. I was thinking about renting a wallpaper steamer to see if that would make it go quicker.

I agree with using lithium grease. WD-40 is a "Water Displacer" and most of it ends up on the ground instead of clinging on to whatever it's supposed to lubricate. As others have mentioned have you checked if its the actual opener? Is it chain or belt driven? Belt drives are recommended for attached garages to reduce noise.

Hi Everyone! 

A little about myself,

Full time Engineer, part time real estate newbie. Spent many summers in high school working for my dad for his remodeling company. Lots of hands on/technical experience. I've worked alongside my dad as he helped other investors and real estate professionals flip homes and prepare rentals. Now that I have a full time career, income, and the ability to borrow money I felt like its the perfect time to put my experience to use to generate extra income. Bought my first home (short sale) in 2015 and finished renovations 6 months later (I'll post pics in the "Post your Pics" thread. I'm very excited to meet like minded, ambitious people in my area! I've been reading the forums for a couple months now, I know there's a few members here from the southwest suburbs. I'm mainly interested in flips to build up capital and then maybe diversifying into rentals for passive income. Is there any MeetUps or REI meetings going on in this area?