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All Forum Posts by: Alexander Chavez

Alexander Chavez has started 29 posts and replied 48 times.

@Brie Schmidt

Short term- I am looking to see what they can offer me in regards to a home equity line of credit on my current home.  I will use this to fund part of a flip in Chicago.  

Long term- I am hoping to build a relationship and build a reputation with them for future investment opportunities.

My current strategy is to do flips and in the future move to flips and buy and holds all in my local Chicago neighborhoods.

Basically, I want to see and understand what they can offer me in comparison with the larger financial Institutions such as Chase, PNC, etc.  I've never done business nor held a account with a community bank so am not familiar with how they work.

Post: Value added items for an appraisal

Alexander ChavezPosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 49
  • Votes 7

Hello,

I understand that most appraisals use the market and comps in order to come up with an appraised value for a home.  However, what are some value added things that you can add to your home that will help get a higher appraised home? I am in Chicago, in the Avondale neighborhood.

Hello,

Can anyone recommend a local community bank or any references on how to find some?  I am in Chicago in the Avondale neighborhood, so anything there or the surrounding neighborhoods.

MODERATOR:  RECOMMENDATIONS ONLY, PLEASE.  DON'T ADVERTISE YOUR BANK HERE.

Hello,

Anyone have experience using your current homes line of credit as leverage for your next Investment?  I am planing on doing this in Chicago and was wondering if this is the best route for one of my funding options.

Also, can anyone recommend a bank to do this with in the northwest side of Chicago? Larger Institution or community bank. 

Post: Getting ready to do my first solo deal

Alexander ChavezPosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 49
  • Votes 7

@Roman Pak

Looks great! I like the open floor space in the living/dining, floor,  and choice of tiles and granite and the overall kitchen.  Did you choose those or did the contractor? How much was your total rehab costs? 

I am working my way to my second rehab, but first flip (rehabbed my current home- 2 flat a little over a year ago. Don't plan to ever sell this one , it will be my first long term hold).  I am working on getting my financing in place and will soon be looking for a property to flip in Chicago.  Thanks for all the updates in this post, really enjoyed reading/following along!

Post: Chicago RE Agents fees

Alexander ChavezPosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 49
  • Votes 7

Hello!

For the city of Chicago, what is a good rule of thumb to budget for RE agents?  

How much $ or % should you calculate for a buyers agent?

How much $ or % should you calculate for a listing agent?

Post: Capital gain on a flip to sell

Alexander ChavezPosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 49
  • Votes 7

Hello Everyone!

I am trying to break down different scenarios for a future flip in Chicago and was hoping I can get some feedback from people. I do plan to do this under my own name and not in the name of an LLC(for this deal). I will be putting in most of the money for the purchase and rehab but will also have a partner for any of the remaining rehab amount. I have an understanding of how the federal taxes would work (at least somewhat), I would add the profit from the flip to my current income and then pay the taxes according to the tax bracket I am in(if sold under 1 year-which is the plan).

To make things easier to explain, lets use this example:

Purchase price (includes all purchasing expenses) = $150,000

Rehab, holding, closing, etc costs = $50,000

Total expenses = $200,000

Lets say it sells at $250,000 so profit = $50,000

I put in $170,000 my partner $30,000

We agree to split the profit %in for %out.... so in this case 85/15

What I am trying to determine is how does uncle sam account for all the expenses in order to subtract it from the final sales price to get your total profit on which they will charge you capital gains? (what documents/receipts,etc do I need to provide them with)

What about the state of Illinois, what are there capital gain rates?

How do they account for the money your partner contributes(in this case some of the rehab costs)?  Do my partner and I have to set-up any specific documents in order to provide them with the proof of this, or just receipts?

I might not be asking the right questions so feel free to help fill in any of the blanks, ask questions, heck even criticize (if it will help me learn and understand how this works).

Post: SDI for real estate in Chicago

Alexander ChavezPosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 49
  • Votes 7

@Dale Stevens- and anyone else who can help. 

I did some research on this and was talking with the company "The Entrust Group" and asked those specific questions and pretty much found out that although I am considered a "disqualified person" at the time of initial purchase, your IRA can partner with anyone, including a disqualified person. But after the transaction is closed, your IRA cannot buy, sell, or transfer to any disqualified person. He can partner IRA funds with another investor on a new purchase and that investor can be anyone (including a disqualified person). Also, if we are going 50/50 on this that means it would have to be 50/50 in regards to all expenses as well as the the profit. He'll benefit more as he will not have to pay taxes on his profit but I will have to pay captital gain taxes (how much % is this usually?) Is the explanation I was provided correct, and is there any other rules to be aware of? I see BP advertises an SDI company called Broad Financial any insight on them? Anyone have experience with entrust group or MidlandIRA?

@Dale Stevens I will check out Midland IRA, thanks for the reference. Also if you would like I can find the link in my email of the info/FAQs entrust group sent me if you would like I can send it to you?

Post: SDI for real estate in Chicago

Alexander ChavezPosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 49
  • Votes 7

Hello!

Looking into financing options for a rehab project. One financing option is to partner with my father (turning 62yrs old this year) for this first project. Would like to have this financing option planned/thought out before I find the right home for the project. I will use my current home and take out a line of credit to fund my half. He has some money in a 401K through work and plans on retiring in a few months. He is leaving it up to me to help him with investing his 401K and I feel that Real Estate will generate much larger returns than the stock market. I have been looking into Self directed IRA's so he can roll some of that into to use for RE investments. Any SDI companies anyone here can recommend(hoping for something local-Chicago- where I can actually sit down and talk with the person face to face as there are a ton of IRS rules that will need to be followed)? If not anything local, is there any SDI company you may recommend? Any insight as to if you think this is a good idea or not or what other options you may suggest and why? Also, any good or bad stories you may have on any experiences with this would be great to hear.

Thanks!

Post: New Member from Chicago!

Alexander ChavezPosted
  • Chicago, IL
  • Posts 49
  • Votes 7

Hello Everybody!

I am new but old to BP as I originally joined back in the middle of 2014 and was following along until I began searching for a new job (Engineering)that was closer to home (was commuting Chicago to Aurora before) and of course offered more money and better career growth. I got a new and better Engineering job with an Integrator back in January and am now dedicating more time in learning the different aspects of RE Investing, but focusing on Flipping/Rehabbing. I decided to take a pause in my RE learning adventures while job hunting due to time. Also, I wanted to become more capable of understanding different RE terminology and concepts so that I know how to ask the right questions and truly understand how a lot of it works, as before I was just reading most of the posts I would get alerted from my keywords alert setting on BP and was not comfortable becoming actively involved in the conversations because I just did not know enough. 

So to improve this I took the advice of what seems to be plenty of different RE investors on this site. I purchased and read Rich dad poor dad, I also purchased both of J Scotts books and am in the process of reading them. I download the podcasts and have been listening to the ones that seem to match with my RE goals (during my commute for work). I use Redfin to search my target areas for recently sold properties and current properties for sale so that I can have a realistic understanding of what the market is like in these areas. Through what I am learning from these different sources I am starting to build my business plan/model. I am also hoping to build a good network of REI to learn from and possibly even partner with in the future. So now it is time to pull the trigger and become more actively involved. I do enjoy the work I do for my job so I do plan to do this all while holding a full time job, for now at least , we'll see if that changes in the next few years.

Here’s a little about me and my experience with RE. I am a 26 year old Engineer, born and raised and currently live in the city of Chicago. I bought my first home back in 2013, it is a brick 2 flat in the Avondale neighborhood of Chicago. I ended up doing a complete gut rehab on it. I rent out the 2nd floor and I live on the 1st floor. Although it was a stressful and time consuming task I am glad I went through the experience as it has helped me learn a lot about myself and rehabbing. This was a great experience and I enjoyed seeing the before and after results as the project was moving along. I did a lot of the work myself (as part of the learning experience, and since I was planning on living there) so it did take longer than one would want in a true house rehab/flip, so although I saved on rehab costs it did increase the holding costs since I did not have a tenant to help cover the mortgage until I was done (took 9 months- while working a full time job and dealing with a 3hr daily commute!). However, I look at that as an investment in my Rehabbing Education. I did use a contractor to help out with some of the major repairs (42 windows, brand new plumbing, new hardwood floors, and converting from radiators to central air) the rest I did myself so I got exposure to working with contractors and truly understanding what kind of work is involved and what some of the costs in a rehab might be and how to survey a property for needed repairs. I have plenty of good and bad experiences from this that taught me a lot!

So my current plan is to buy distressed properties near my actual residence (Avondale and the surrounding neighborhoods), rehab them and then sell them for a profit. I do not plan on doing the rehab work myself for these, instead I will use contractors as I will attempt to flip these within a short time frame. The plan for 2015 is to do one of these deals just to get the ball rolling (but that could change depending on how well it goes). Then for 2016 do at least 2-3 flips. I am in the process of trying to build my team and asking all the questions I have in order to make this work. For the financing portion I am exploring a few different options and was hoping to get plenty of feedback from “BP’ers” on what they think. So time to jump into some of the questions I have. Sorry for the extremely long post, hopefully you made it this far :-)

One financing option is to partner with my father (turning 62yrs old this year) for this first project. I will use my home and take out a line of credit to fund my half. He has some money in a 401K through work and plans on retiring in a few months. He is not very knowledgeable on how to invest it after retirement so is leaving it up to me to help him with that, and I feel that Real Estate will generate much larger returns than the stock market. I have been looking into Self directed IRA so he can roll some of that into a SDI to use for RE investments. Any SDI companies anyone here can recommend(hoping for something local where I can actually sit down and talk with the person face to face as there are a ton of IRS rules that will need to be followed)? Any insight as to if you think this is a good idea or not or what other options you may suggest? Any suggestions on using my home and taking a line of credit loan to fund my half and possibly my future projects?

This is the team I am hoping to build for my projects. Attorney, Accountant, Contractor(s), Inspector, RE Buyers Agent familiar with my farm area, selling agent, Title company. I have a few candidates for some of these but the more the better. What else would be essential? Any recommendations on the above that are local (Chicago)?

Thanks!