All Forum Posts by: Joey Nakayama

Thanks @Kimberly H.  I hadn't heard of NTN. They sound like a very thorough resource. Can prospective tenants apply and pay their app fee directly through NTN?

There are two options with Smartmove. For $25 you'll get a criminal background check, credit score, and an overall recommendation based on criteria you set. For $30 you'll also get a full credit report listing all accounts, payment history, etc. Details here: https://www.mysmartmove.com/tenant-credit-check.ht...

Great thread. I'll second what others have said about removing as much friction from the process as possible for prospective tenants. Using SmartMove to handle applications and application fees has worked very well for me — https://www.mysmartmove.com

I'll also second what @Shane Pearlman noted on photography. A little staging and a decent DSLR with a wide angle lens has worked wonders for my listings — especially on a channel like craigslist where dark, blurry shots of someone's laundry on a bed seems to be closer to the norm...

Best of luck!

Depends on the building. For multifamily buildings landlords typically pay water/sewer and electricity for common areas (basements, stairwells, exteriors, etc.) If the entire building is heated from a single boiler, landlords pay that bill too. 

Tenants pay for anything separated for their unit (usually gas and electricity). 

@Christopher Malone I'm in a similar situation, looking to acquire another multifamily this year. The areas of Cook I'm personally familiar with don't produce cash flow numbers that make sense for me. There are definitely areas where the numbers look fantastic, but they come with risks and unknowns I'm not yet comfortable with. I'm committed to getting educated and more comfortable, though. There's a great community here for that.

Sorry to miss this one @Brie Schmidt ...looking forward to the next!

I have a 3 flat in Irving Park and haven't yet had a problem finding good tenants within a week from posting. 

The Cook County rental market varies widely from neighborhood to neighborhood. What particular areas are you interested in?

My building is 3 units, 7 br, about 4000 ft sq total. It's heated by a single hot water boiler, which shares a gas line with one of the rental units and a commercial dryer in the basement. During the summer that gas bill is $70-$80. This past brutal winter, the worst bill topped out a little over $650. The winter before the worst was $500. Age and efficiency of the boiler are big factors - My building has an older boiler that I plan to replace before next year.

As others have said, there are a lot of variables and the only way to tell is to get actual records from the buildings you're interested in.

@Danny Duran  On the tax issue - if you purchase a 3 flat purely as a rental property (not a non-primary residence) you can deduct 100% of mortgage interest, taxes, insurance, building repairs, etc. If you owner occupy, you can deduct only the portion of those expenses not related to the section you live in (2/3rds for a 3 flat, but still 100% for expenses related only to one of the rental units).

@Steven Hamilton II is a great resource for all things tax related.

@Raymond B.  

Good catch — the names seemed to be linked while I was writing, but when I posted they unlinked somehow. Thanks anyway though.