All Forum Posts by: Jaclyn McClellan

@Ryan Johnston we (my team and I - Barracuda Homes) currently focus on fix and flip, but we also intend to do more buy and hold as well. 

Hey Ryan Johnston I'm in the Chicago market. Welcome to BiggerPockets :) let me know if there's anything I can do to help

Yu should ask Brandon and Josh what they think about this .. haha! Pretty sure it's been covered on the BP podcast a couple of times.

Timothy Church great insights!! I'm glad you are deciding to post more on BP. I think posts like this are really helpful for people getting started or people who want to understand their options.

Hello Sean Graham !!! Welcome to BP. Great resource and great people. I'm in the Chicago market, let me know if there's anything I can do to help :)

Taxes in Chicago have gone up, but like @Josh Kundrat said, it's at least comparable to other surrounding areas. I know of many suburbs that have wayyy higher taxes.

Taxes are included in your PITI calculation "principal, interest, taxes, insurance." It should be calculated into your net cash flow because these will be outgoing payments, among other things. You can try to estimate increases in taxes going forward, but sometimes that can be difficult because it's based on assumptions. Factor in some of the local regulations being mentioned and look at it like... how much could taxes increase in order for me to still make my minimum net cash flow requirement per month. If taxes going up even a little bit would make the deal not worth it, then maybe don't purchase.

Analysis points could include:

-Average days on market

-Saturation rate

-Median sales price

-Inventory of homes for sale

-Percent of original list price received

-Change in median sales price

compare this month to last month, but also year-over-year, winter markets tend to slow down so it's not really "fair" to compare it solely to the summer.

Ask the BP community for a contractor recommendation in your area. If you get a good one you should be able to ask them questions about what comes first - definitely good that you're thinking about that. If it really doesn't need much work the order shouldn't be toooo important - usually you can run into "order" issues if you're replacing plumbing, moving walls, etc.

Patrick Carmen I would say "no money down" is possible .. however I wouldn't count on it. No money down means using other peoples money and you have to have connections to do that. Most hard money lenders will still want you to put roughly 20% down. There are options like cash from a credit card or using something like lending club, but it goes without saying that can be dangerous. Especially if "surprise" costs pop up. Doesn't mean it can't be done. I suggest trying to network and working with a team of people. Some investors recommend finding more experienced investors to work with, but the seasoned pros don't necessarily jump at the idea of working with a newbie. So you could also find like-minded newbies to work with. Then when you're pooling money for 20% down, it's not nearly as bad.

How long have you been marketing? I've heard many times that you don't actually see the effects of marketing until after roughly 6 months. Many investors assume their method isn't working so they change it and then they mess up their strategy and it's hard to tell what's working versus not working. Also you have to "hit" prospective leads several times - literally like 5+ times in some cases.

great thread and some great insights everyone!

I think @Brie Schmidt hit it on the head - deals come and go. Markets tend to slow down during the winter but that doesn't mean there's no deals. You just have to be ready to move quickly and also expect a multiple offer situation. Irrespective, don't go over what YOU determine you need to pay for a property, I've seen people increase their purchase price more and more just to be competitive and get the deal, but then they end up eating into their profits and barely make money when they go to sell.

Anyways, I hope everyone in Chicago is staying warm today..!