All Forum Posts by: Christopher Grannen

I haven’t, I worry about contacting through official city channels, to avoid any chance of showing up on city radar. Just my luck, I would be describing a potential pie-in-the-sky idea that raises eyebrows and merits a bit of extra attention or scrutiny.

Through some more googling, finding a somewhat relevant blog post from 2016, and cold calling this afternoon, I got in touch with an attorney who does zoning and real estate, and he was able to help me make sense of the code and how it applies to my situation. 
He was also kind enough to put me in touch with an associate of his who is an Expeditor.  I wasn’t aware of that profession, they are basically a city permit consultant who can help streamline the process of acquiring permits and such.  He’s also a GC and has other businesses.  Between both of those guys this evening, I was able to sort it out and plan my next moves.

So basically the independent zoning authority I was looking for was a combo of this attorney and an expeditor. Have any of you worked with an expeditor before? It seems to be just one arm of what a typical GC would be hired to do, but as a stand-alone service.

Obviously Chicago has a lot of zoning/permit types of hoops to jump through if you exist inside the city limits.  I have been doing my best to research a lot on my own to find out what sorts of regulations apply to my own situation, but a lot of the times, it's difficult to sift through the source material, which is all heavy legal jargon.

Case in point:  Our property has a detached garage on the back of our lot, exiting onto the alley.  The garage takes up 12 of the 25' lot width.  I'd like to use the garage for things besides parking a car, and the idea was to park the car next to the garage, on our lot.  Eventually, pour a proper concrete parking pad (12'x20'), but in the short term, maybe just pour an inch of gravel.  

A friend of mine told me that the City specifies that you cannot park vehicles on your property.  This wouldn't surprise me.  I found this Chicago Driveway Regulations on the city website, but cannot get an authoritative answer from reading it.  I have been in contact with the Alderwoman's office, but I am refraining from sharing any specific intentions or plans that I may have, to stay on the safe side.

MY QUESTION: Is there a recommended impartial source for this sort of city zoning interpretation/information?  

as a renter, my last few places have had a laundry situation that is downstairs in a basement, 1 or 2 floors below where the apartment is. It's one of the more annoying parts about the spaces, and I dream of the day where I can have access to in-unit laundry without having to wonder whether it's time to switch it over or not, and not forget about it for a day and a half because I moved onto other tasks that were in the apartment, and not the basement.

i dont know what the typical renter would prefer, but I would pay more for in-unit laundry than I would for a clean, well-lit laundry facility in the basement. just my 2 cents!

We are officially under contract and the inspector comes by next wednesday.

We had an electrician come by today, as well as a paint/interior finisher come by to offer an evaluation and an estimate for what they saw.  we're now in the process of finding the right contractors. Would welcome any references!

Looking for a complete GC, or individual trades: Electrical, Tuckpointing, Concrete Slab pouring, Plumbing and others.

I will be following this thread closely, as I have been spending the last week or two deliberating these same questions.  I'm sorry you have to be in this situation where there is an open project that seems in a standstill over red tape. I hope you can find some useful information here.

Unfortunately, I cannot offer anything actionable in terms of suggestions.  I have read differing opinions online and I have heard lots of conjecture from peers about what is required and what is expected, and what my own personal course of action ought to be.  

Something that I have noticed, and THIS IS NOT LEGAL OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE, is that only a small percentage of the opinions that I have collected indicated that I should unequivocally adhere to all permit procedures as set out by the city.  For a fix-and-flip or income properties, I would guess that the calculus for the property owner than if it were an owner-occupy situation.

good luck, hopefully somebody with experience in your debacle will lend some suggestions!

any recommendations for a good home inspector for midcentury chicago buildings?

my realtor said he has a good recommendation, but i think i'd like to be ready to hire a second inspector as well.  not from a lack of trust, but just from a human error standpoint, and a second opinion standpoint.

@John Warren indeed, this property really checks so many boxes for us, however, i am really searching high and low for all the red flags.  her business is in branding design, as well as online retail and special events (artistic workshops, classes, showings).  the fact that it's directly across the street from the USPS is a huge boon for us.

thanks for the honest feedback!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EHQ4...

a collection of photos of the property, with an emphasis on the problem areas as I could assess them.  comments/captions for every photo give context.

thank you very much, @Jonathan Klemm and @John Warren

On saturday, we offered 375 for the building, based on our realtor's comp list and the size of the building. the sellers were asking 399. they are currently reviewing the offer with their lawyer(s). indeed, the residential is more than 51% of the building, and we are pre approved for an FHA loan @ about 3.5%. It seems like the monthly PITI would be just shy of $2k. Definitely affordable for us as individuals, but also my wife's business has been paying that for the last number of years to rent a storefront in Ukrainian village.

In terms of holding, we intend to hold for as long as possible, as long as it makes financial sense.  We will owner-occupy while we update it and make it comfortable for us and the modern world, and then hold and rent it in the future if that is what the future dictates.  agreed, i have heard that mixed use is a hard sell recently, as storefronts are not renting these days.  we put the offer in quickly after seeing it, because the sellers were planning on listing the building with an agent soon, and wanted to make sure we could put in a meaningful offer before potential competition joined in.  also, our offer is basically giving them their asking price if they would have listed it and paid agents a 5% cut.  Still not overly confident that our offer reflects the property's true value, though, without a professional inspection.

This week, my wife and I used the BP rehab calculator tool to create an excel spreadsheet to help quantify any/all of the upgrades/updates that we would like to do to the building, both in the short term (interior paint, window replacement) and the very long term (add pass-thru garage door, move/remove walls in apartment, open the layout).  our next step is to try to source some number ranges for all of those projects, and use that to inform our priorities/expectations.  we believe that if we close on the property, we can spend a month or two doing the high-priority items before we actually occupy the building.

Through the course of this week I have been excited and confident about the prospects, and I have been absolutely crushed with fear and uncertainty. Currently, though, as I keep learning, I am feeling more pragmatic and think we can make it work for us.  The wisdom on this site refers often to building your trusted team, and with my wife as my main teammate through this, I feel that no problem will be to big to handle.

@Andy Nathan thank you, i'll definitely look into those calculators.