All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

My biggest concern is whether investing in this area long-term is a good idea. Chicago has issues, and if the cash flow is zero to negative, I certainly wouldn't count on appreciation in this area. 

Would you recommend I save the downpayment and use it in a better market, while renting here in Chicago?

Hello everyone,

I am looking at a junior studio in Chicago, Lincoln Park area. Since I'm new to this real estate market, I'm hoping to get some insight from the pros on whether this is a good deal or not.

Here are the basics:

Priced at 190K, hoping to get 185+5K in sellers concessions for net sale price of 180K. Currently it's rented out for the next 2 months (red flag?). Rent is 1300$. The place seems clean and well-kept. 4 minutes from CTA station on brown/pink line. Trader Joes 5 minutes, WF 10 minutes walk, so is a major university. Downtown within a 20 minute train ride. 

Running basic numbers, the pmi+hoa+taxes come up to about 1250$. I know, I know! Not meeting the 1% rule, BUT initially I would live in it. Not sure for how long (hence primary residence loan with 20% down).

Here are my questions:

1. How good of a deal is it for Chicago area, given the shortage of inventory?

2. What am I getting in if I purchase a *leased* property?

3. During my conversation with the realtor, she gave away a vibe that a market may be flattening given the incredible appreciation rate over the last few years combined with raising interest rates. I appreciated her honesty,  but it does concern me. Should wait to purchase given the current state of the market (insane appreciation; incomes not keeping up with it), as well as the fact that cash flow would be negative if I had to rent it out for some reason (i.e. if economy went down and I had to move to another state for a job)?

4. Given Chicago's potential (or lack of it), is this a good buy and hold deal? Like I said, I currently live in Chicago, enjoy it and would rather not pay rent, but don't know how long I will stay here. 

Also, ideally, I'd like to hold on to my properties for 30 years until they are paid off. 

Overall, I'm a bit hesitant purchasing in Cook County and would appreciate any insight. Should I run or go with it?

I purchased a house less than a year ago fro 280K. Since then it appreciated by about 20K. Also, I put in about 20K of improvements in it.

What's the best way to make the transaction and minimize the tax burden? Should I just "borrow" the money from my mom to pay off the loan, and then file a quitclaim? 

Or should I record it as a purchase contract? If so, how much should I sell it for? Can I sell it for 300K and still not have to claim capital gains due to improvements I made? Or should I just sell it for 280K?

 Hello everyone, 

My job is taking me to Chicago this winter. I’ve never lived there, and I could love it or hate it - hard to tell  from previous visits.  I anticipate that I will stay there for 1-3 years, depending on whether I like the city.

I am considering purchasing a condo for myself to live in which I would rent out later on down the road.  I have 20% down available and ready to buy a condo in 250K range.

A couple questions come up though: I heard that Cook County is not landlord friendly,  and dealing with a rental later on might be a pain.  So for the short term it might be worth just renting. On the other hand, a rental downtown would cost me about $20,000 for year. That’s a lot of lost equity. 

 The bottom line question is, given the situation of uncertainty whether I will like the city or not and the reality of being a landlord in Cook County, would you recommend renting or buying a condo and renting it out later? 

Good to know.  So what are my options at this point? 

 I have signed the closing paperwork but the funds will be disbursed the day after tomorrow so there's one more day to correct the documents. I would frankly prefer to have this taken care of right now rather than deal with that later.

 I am selling a place in Arizona for which I had prepaid taxes for the current year. The title company did not see that the money was being held in the treasurers office account ( they haven't applied it towards the current tax year yet ), so it was not reflected on the closing documents. 

 After I pointed it out to the title company, they recommended that I just request the refund from the county which will take up to two months. I feel that this should be corrected before closing as I don't want to be dealing with the state treasurer to get the money back. Which would you all recommend? 

I'm lucky that I flew in to see it myself and ran into these people. Otherwise I would have been potentially stuck with a noisy condo with unreliable a/c unit. 

Shouldn't this kind of thing be disclosed or pointed out by the realtor to the buyer?

I am an out of state buyer, found a condo in Texas online. Seemed like a decent deal. A realtor showed it to me via Facetime and it looked like there were no issues. We made an offer, and it was accepted with a 300$ option fee (apparently, a Texas thing). 

The next day I flew in to look at it and what the realtor didn't mention to me is that ALL the a/c units for the whole first floor were located right by the bedroom window of this condo - so you can imagine the noise!

Also, when we were about to walk out, the current owners showed up. She asked them about the noise, and they said that you "get used to it" unless one of the a/c breaks and then it's REALLY LOUD and the HOA desn't do a good job fixing them.

Needless to say, I'm terminating the contract. Is there any way I can get out of the option fee? Or am I stuck with it?

So the offer did get accepted (duh!). I spoke to the agent, and she said that the market in Canton area has been increasing by about 10% each month this year. Said that if we tried to bargain most likely the sellers would keep the property on the market for another few days and would have gotten a full price offer. 

At this point I'm definitely not paying cash for it. I know it looks bad but losing money would look even worse, right? At this point I can either:

1. convert the purchase to a conventional loan with either 5 or 20 % down. That way I'd have the protection of an appraisal.

2. pull out and rent (Looking at about 2000$/month in rental expense) and see what happens with this market and if it slows down by the fall

Unfortunately, this property doesn't meet the 1% rule. At 154K purchase price the expected rent would be 1270 MAX. 200$ HOA, about 200$ prop taxes. There are few good deals in decent areas at this point, most get swept up with offers over asking price.

One of the posters said it's a tenant friendly market in Canton - what is it reflected in specifically?

One of the things that concern me buying in Michigan is the auto market industry and the sub-prime loans. That is a huge driver of growth in this area, and if it halts not only the housing values will decrease but it might be hard to find renters if people lose their jobs.