All Forum Posts by: Fedor Volkov

Hi Chicagoland BP community! 

Anyone can recommend a reliable plumber in Avondale/Logan Square to help with (hopefully) some minor things (slow bathtub drain, few leaks) etc. 

Thank you!

Fedor

Thanks Henry! My agreement doesn't spell anything related to this situation, so I guess it will be up to me and the agent to negotiate it.   

Hi BP community, 

I recently purchased a three-flat with one vacant unit. At the beginning I thought I will do all the marketing and showings myself and therefore I listed it on Zillow and a few other websites. A few days before closing I only had one interested lead and I decided to get a lease agent to help me with marketing and showings given I'll be busy at my full-time job and won't have a lot of time to show the unit. The lease agent signed with has a standard 1 month rent fee for finding me a tenant and I signed the standard Chicago rental listing agreement. 

The interesting part is that the lead I got from Zillow actually showed up (I did the tour as it was the day I was signing with the leasing agent), they liked the apartment and decided to apply (the agent did the application process and the background check), with all the checks it looks like we are honoring the lease to these folks. 

The question I have, what is the common practice in this case related to the lease agent fees. Am I still technically liable to pay the 1st month fee? I'm willing to compensate the agent for the work and time he spent, but I just feel the 1 month lease fee is not justified in this case (he did show the property to one of the applicants, he brought a photographer on site, but there is no need to list the property now and the lead came from my old posting). Would it be fair to try to negotiate a discount on the fee? Have folks seen similar situations? 

Thank you!

Hi BP community, 

In light of the covid-crisis and many states having a shelter-in-place order, what are your strategies to keep your rental leads coming? Those of you who have tried virtual tours, recording a video walkthrough of your properties - what are the apps you've been using? Any tips you could share? Are these steps even helpful, have you seen a higher interest in your rentals after posting videos? 

Zillow has a virtual tour app that apparently can help recording the video tour + I was also thinking of just recording a video myself and sharing with prospective tenants.

I have a vacant 3bed/3bath in Chicago but the city is locked with a shelter-in-place order. I'm still getting some leads from Zillow, but it's been slow for a well-known reason. 

Tips will be highly appreciated. 

Thank you and stay safe out there

Hi Yishi, 

This looks good, here are a few thoughts:

1. How confident are you on the rental income? 2.2k on a 200k ARV looks very good. Great if this is true, but always worth checking the rent comps more carefully. Is this a SFH?

2. 3% loan interest looks aggressive, I would budget 3.5%, have you been pre-approved to get a better estimate? 

3. Is this a SFH? Are the utilities metered? If metered, then tenants can be paying for electricity, heating and water and this shouldn't be your expense

Hope this helps

Cheers!

I agree that vacancy is very low and you need a reason to justify such a low amount (e.g., you have long-term tenants that you are confident in that will rent for 3-5 years). An alternative way to look at it is to translate this into actual vacant days - for example, a vacancy of 3% means that your property will be vacant only 11 days/year. How realistic is that if your average tenant stays for 1 year? Is this a hot area where your new tenants will be lining up weeks in advance and be ready to move in right after your previous tenant leaves? If yes - then sure, 3% works, if you are not sure, I would factor in a higher vacancy (personally I would do 7% which gives me about 25 days for average turnover. 

I would factor more for capex and repairs (7-8% for each). This is often a black box for someone starting out (like me) and I would rather be more conservative. Things to look at here - how old are the building components (e.g., HVAC, roof, structure, etc.)

@Kyle Curtin agree with the comments above, knowing the numbers and how each unit is connected to the utilities is important. Expenses are probably easier to estimate, but check what are the typical landlord costs in your area. Here in Chicago the landlord will typically pay for water and the bill may highly vary from property to property ($3k for a triplex vs $1k for a triplex can really make or break your cash flows).

What I also think is important for a house hack is the composition of your multi-family. You want to live in the smallest unit available (eg garden unit or 1/1 unit) and maximize your income by renting all the other space.

Finally, don’t forget about tax benefits. There are many more topics on this but in brief, repairs and maintenance for the owner-occupied unit are not tax deductible (the IRS treats this as your personal property so the rules are pretty much the same as if you were to buy your own property place). Another reason why you want to move in to the smaller unit (or move into the largest one and rent the rooms?)

Overall house hack is a great strategy and a great way to start the RE journey even in this turbulent times.

Hi BP community! 

I'm closing on a triplex in Avondale next week and I'm inheriting tenants in one of the units. Their lease (a standard CAR form) is ending May 31st and there are no provisions in the current lease for any renewal notifications. 

As the new landlord that will be inheriting their lease, what are the actions that I need to take to make sure I'm in compliance with all relevant regulations? 

Some more specific questions:
1. Should we send them a notice 60-days in advance or 30-days in advance that we would like to extend the lease for another 12 months with the new rent offer? 

2. What are the actions if we don't reach an agreement to prolong the lease? (e.g., is there a specific time before the lease ends where we need to notify that we will not be extending the lease?)

3. If someone has the latest 2020 CAR lease form, could you kindly share? 

Thank you for your help!

@Account Closed I think this will really depend on who is your tenant and which market are you in? Are your tenants impacted by COVID? Can they be impacted in the next 6-12 months? If your tenant moves out can you find a new tenant for the same rent or higher? 

The answer will be really different if you have a nice property in an A class neighborhood and your tenants are, let's say, business professionals, managers etc. versus you have a property in a B/C class neighborhood and your tenants are in the lower income brackets that can be affected.

I currently lease in downtown Chicago and I'm 100% confident that I will get a rent hike in May when I'm up for renewal, but I'm fine with it, because I'm not under the risk (at least for now) of getting laid off.

Thank you Evan, appreciate your reply!