All Forum Posts by: Brie Schmidt

We use WilliamPaid and while we only have 6 tenants - all of them voluntarily use it. When we get new tenants we give them a list of payment options including WilliamPaid - the benefit to them is that it can be reported to the credit bureau for free and helps build credit. It is free to both the tenant and landlord unless the tenant wants to pay via CC. We also allow the money to be drafted out of their account on the first instead of received by us on the first

We also use www.postlets.com - I just rented out a place in Redondo Beach in less than 3 days

@Aaron Junck - can you clarify the lending alternatives you mentioned?

@Joe Fairless has some good ideas if you dont want to use up all your cash. We have done conventional financing for investment properties and there are a lot of hoops with a lot of cash needed.

* 25% is the minimum down payment for conventional financing here in Chicago

* 6 months of payments for the property in reserves and 3 months payments on your owner occupied property.

* If it is not currently rented out you must qualify for the loan on your own (from your day job) Even if it is currently rented and you do not have 2 years of tax returns showing you make income from being a landlord they may require you to qualify for the loan on your own.

Conventional financing for investments is not easy, we have to prepare our finances for about 6 months before making a purchase/refi because if all these things aren't in place we can't move forward. I would suggest speaking with a lender in your area very familiar with investment financing.

@Augustin G. - I live in the city of Chicago, so for us there are plenty of areas / neighborhoods to choose from. When we first started looking we didn't have a specific neighborhood in mind, just a price point. But the house we ended up getting was perfect because while the area was safe, it didn't look all that great. stores were run down, garbage in the streets, ect. We saw a few new condo developments that were started during the boom, and a few of the corners had stores that were new. So I knew that during the boom it had started to be redeveloped and probably lost funding. so as soon as things started turing around the city started putting money back in and that is how we got so much equity.

We got started by buying a 3 flat in Chicago, living in 1 unit and renting out the other 2. After about a year we had enough equity to refi out of the FHA so we could drop PMI. Since we lived for free we put all the money we saved from paying rent previously and used that as a down payment for another property.

@Augustin G. - My husband and I did the same thing when we got started. 2 years ago we bought our first Multi-Unit with a FHA mortgage and lived in one of the units.

For us, we were open to many neighborhoods, as long as they were walking distance to public transportation. We bought in a up and coming neighborhood that during the boom had started to see new buildings/restaurants, but had not been fully developed yet. In 2 years we have seen our value go up 140%

We bought a updated building and were able to get higher quality tenants than our neighbors (higher rent too). If you are planning to self managing, having new everything will reduce the number of late night phone calls to fix stuff which in my opinion is the biggest pain starting out.

Thanks @Account Closed - We just moved to North Center this summer. As far as the groups, I did look into CCIA and was on the fence about it. WCRT has a Chicago that I might try out.

@Rory Boone - Thanks for the connection

@Wendell De Guzman - Thank you for the information. We are exploring all our options at this point including partnering with the rehabbers we bought our second house from. I will keep it in mind

Thanks everybody for welcoming me!

@Brian Woods - I sent you a connection request, thanks!

@Account Closed - All our properties are in the city. We do target city only (northside) within about 1/2 miles of the El, but have started expanding our search a little bit. Any suggested networking groups / clubs?

My name is Brie and I am a newbie here from Chicago. My husband and I started investing in RE about 2 years ago and currently own 3 buildings in the city. The two we rent out and self manage (3 flats) were purchased from flippers who bought cheap, rehabbed, and sold to us in move in condition. The third was a 2 flat being lived in as a SFH that we bought for ourselves, rehabbed, and increased the value.

We both have full time jobs outside of RE so this is a side business for us, but I am also a licensed RE broker though I only use it to do our own deals.

We are preparing to start looking again for another acquisition, though I am not seeing anything on the market that would yield the ROI we have been getting. We have had good luck in the past buying from flippers, but are starting to explore doing the flips ourselves or with a partner. I would like to network with flippers, contractors, and lenders and hope to grow our business!