All Forum Posts by: Daniel Winsauer

@Frank Chin This seemed like the most obvious option. I have no problem waiting until February but I wasn't sure if there was an easy way to change them over now. Thanks for your response!

@Cody Barna Thanks for your response! There is small maintenance needs like possible repaint/drywall work but that is minimal and I will wait until tenant turnover. I'm comfortable with the rents where they are. This will also be an owner occupied property so I will be able to keep a close eye on the property/tenants. I'm wondering the best way to transition the current tenants to new leases.

I have my first property under contract. I've reviewed the current leases and they seem very basic. Two of the three units are month to month but the other lasts until February. I want to transition them over to my BP lease as soon as possible. Do I ask them to sign onto my lease now? Do I ask them to sign an addendum? Do I wait until the end of their term? Any advice on this is appreciated! Also with the moratoriums going on is there anything I should add to my lease about Covid/evictions?

@Jonathan Klemm

I'll check him out! I'm looking at about a 45 minute radius of Dundee so I can continue at my job.

@Michael Barnhart

Learning a lot already. Still a lot to learn!

@Martin Vehlow

I'm trying to find someone who can come see the property with me to help me estimate the repair costs. After I know that I can know where the purchase price needs to be to make it a good deal. I agree that as is the price is to high. With my experience and access to capital I could only do one building right now but if it went well I could repeat on the others.

What I found:

I've been looking for my first 2-4 unit building in the northwest suburbs of Chicago for a little while now. I came across a fourplex in McHenry that looked like a good price but it had been sitting on the market for over a year so i knew something was up. I talked to my realtor and he said that when he looked into it he saw that it was not only vacant but had a laundry list of city violations.

My concerns and thoughts:

Obviously if a property has been on the market for a long time I'm not the only one who has looked into it and shied away. The list of violations includes everything you can imagine from foundation cracks to roofing to caulking to graffiti. My agent said it was the longest list he's ever seen (about 4 pages). I don't want to shy away from the deal but I might be getting over my head if I go through with this deal. I know the #1 way I'm going to screw this up is by not estimating rehab costs. It's going to basically need new and repaired everything but the ARV will probably be a ways north of $400,000. I'm trying to plan out the costs and I imagine them being hundreds of thousands of dollars but I think the owner would probably let it go very inexpensive because of all the issues. I guess my thinking (which might be flawed) is that repairs might be in the 200s but even then there is still money if I get the property cheap enough. That budget could even be low it's just hard to imagine spending that much on repairs. My exit strategy would be to sell with the back up of renting.

My questions:

What is the best way to estimate rehab costs on a building in such disrepair? Any advise on doing a renovation this large? 

HI! My name is Daniel and I'm starting my story in real estate investing. I'm only 21 y/o, but I'm working 2 jobs to try to save up as much as I can to get the ball rolling. I'm looking to get started by house hacking a 2-4 unit property for a year and then hopefully repeat. I live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago (Elgin, Dundee, Algonquin, Barrington area) I've already made some good connections and found a realtor and lender. Hopefully this community can guide me with advise and networking. If you're in the area, then feel free to shoot me a message or reply to this post.