All Forum Posts by: Jim Bryant

19,000

It was a silent auction for a bank foreclosure in the Illinois Valley.  The house needed some work, especially plumbing.

Not a bad little place though.  It has been rented to the same family for 6 years now.

Ok thanks alot!

I think I have my properties picked out.  Do I have to wait until the sale of my property too close before giving my list of three?

I just want to make sure the properties I have  my eye on don't sell while I'm waiting for everything to go through. 

Ok thanks for the advice! I think we've got it nailed down here. We worked with an attorney from the other side who was executing a FSBO and he says he can do the whole thing for 2k. The QI is asking 500 flat feet. That all seems reasonable.

So I'm trying to sell one of my rental properties to trade up to a multi-family home.  

There is no problem with finding a buyer, my renter wants to buy it for my asking price.

Since I already have a buyer, I don't think I should use an agent.  So what will I need to make this sale all legal-beagle?  Some people are talking about escrow or title companies and others about getting a lawyer.

In addition, since I want to do a 1031 exchange, I guess I need to find a QI.   Also for the purposes of my 1031 exchange I am looking at more expensive properties than the sale price of my home and at the time of the sale I own the property outright.  I read something about needing the amount of debt to be greater on the new property, but since I own the property I am selling outright, I would imagine it doesn't apply. 

This all seems very complex, does anyone have experience with this in Illinois?

These guys have never steered me wrong.  Very thorough:

https://www.rocksolidinspectio...

Things are fine with us, all our units our filled.  We had a goofy renter at No. 2, which is our problem child house.  He decided to stop paying at one point and it took forever to get him out.  In the end we didn't have to evict him, just threaten it a bunch of times.  Of course, he left all sorts of trash, as is the custom.

The 3-unit is doing well, but of course there are new problems like who will the cut the grass and tenants complaining about other tenants.  Other than, though, working out well.

There is a 4 unit in Spring Valley.  They are listing at 279k and they collect 2200 total for rent a month.  Running the numbers, it seems either the price is way too high or the rent is way too low, not sure.

I  thought about selling a couple of my weaker performers and putting it towards another multi-unit.  I mean prices are so damn inflated, that it might be a better idea to consolidate into fewer, but higher-yield properties. 

Anyway, what's going on with you?

So I was talking with a coworker today and she mentioned HUD-VASH. From what I gather it's somewhat like Section 8, but benefits homeless vets. I wanted to know if anyone had experience with it. How tough are the housing inspections to qualify and how good is the rental income?

What were those killer deals?  

Since we bought our latest, the 3-plex in Spring Valley, we haven't been looking around.  Looking today, I saw there are NO multi-families available on Zillow, at least in my search region.  That's interesting, unless I'm doing something wrong.  In any case we're not in a position to pick up anything for a while, we've got two properties (out of six)  that aren't paid off and we are very conservative about debt.

There is a real Mansion for sale in Tiskilwa, "the Stevens House", which is a historical home (although I don't know why).  I was looking for something like that for our living house after I retire in a few years, although it probably won't be available.  Tiskilwa is  far from everything as well, so  probably not the best.  I would like it to be at least close to a gym!

Hey  fun fact, the lousy city of Spring Valley charges a fee for having a rental home.  $25 a year, $10 for each additional unit (if it's a multi-family deal).  I mean it doesn't really effect my bottom line much, but talk about nickel and diming you!