All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Seyfert

Hey BiggerPockets!

Hope everyone is having a great week. I am wondering if anyone out there has any experiences with Section 8 rentals in Lake County, IL. I am looking to purchase my next buy and hold property in Lake County in the upcoming months and am entertaining the idea of advertising to Section 8. Wondering if anyone can comment on:

1.) https://www.lakecountyha.org/p...

Do you know if the payment standards listed in this link are what the government will pay for with renting to section 8 in these zip codes? In some circumstances these numbers appear higher than market rents.

2.) Are there any resources aside from the Lake County Housing Authority website landlords can use as a reference?

3.) Do you have any success or horror stories renting to Section 8 in Lake County in particular?

Thanks for your thoughts! Would love to connect on this topic!

Jonathan

Thanks for the posts everyone - this has been super educational to read as a newbie investor. BiggerPockets amazes me that we can access the opinions of so many people with varied experiences!

Have heard people mention there is a possible utility to having an appraisal when you first acquire the distressed property before rehab. This doesn't make total sense to me since it doesn't take into account what you end up doing with the rehab - and to be honest I may have misunderstood the recommendations -  but wanted to ask if there is any merit to this?

Any utility to having an appraisal contingency and paying for an appraisal before you buy the distress property?

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Also, some talk here of credit union/local bank vs large bank. Is it preferred to go with a local bank that has knowledge of your area for BRRR or does it matter more what specific lender you are actually working with?

Thanks for your thoughts,

Jonathan

@Bob Floss II Thanks for the response. Do you have any links you could send me to Evanston specific tenant laws or other legal considerations for Evanston in particular?

Thanks.

@Travis Rotheiser and @Michael Facchini thanks for the thoughts and responses. This has been a super informative thread for me to follow - really appreciate your time.

In Evanston I would likely be looking East of Chicago Ave and between Dempster and South - love the area south of Main for a 3 flat house hack. What are your thoughts on this area specifically? 

@Michael Facchini do you have any experience with a conventional loan and low down payments like @Travis Rotheiser mentioned? I have a good credit score and for what its worth am a physician as well. I know for my primary residence I had a "doctor loan" - low down payment, no PMI, good interest rate. I read some posts on BP mentioning that a doctor loan in particular usually doesn't apply to multifamily investment properties.

To invest in Evanston at the 750k - 1.25mil range I would need just over a year to accumulate the cash for a downpayment on a conventional 20% down loan. If I had options for financing with lower down payments and ideally no PMI I could invest sooner. All under the presumption this would become my primary residence as a house hack.

Thanks again for your thoughts - really just in a brainstorming and education phase of REI. Hope to dive in with my first deal next year.

Jonathan

Hey BiggerPockets community,

I am a brand new to the real estate investing world and excited to start investing in some brick and mortar as opposed to more index funds. My wife and I love Evanston, IL and were wondering if anyone had any experience in the city with rentals and what that has been like for you?

We are still trying to nail down our desired city to start investing and have lived in Evanston in the past, so know the city fairly well. We would be considering a house hack using FHA loan on a $750k - $1.25million multifamily property, living it in for 2-3 year and then moving on to our next adventure as we turn all units to rentals.

We live in the Northern suburbs of Chicago and are also considering starting to invest in either Chicago or Milwaukee, although neither of those options would be a house hack.

Any opinions or experiences you can share about Evanston, IL would be much appreciated!

Thanks and happy fall,

Jonathan

Thanks for the thoughts @Zoran Stanoev, @Marcus Auerbach, @Brie Schmidt and @Anthony Chara. Seems like the running opinion would be to vote Milwaukee over Chicago given my price preferences, rent control issues aside. I plan to do a bit more of an analysis using this article posted on BP:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Broadly speaking, if given the option, are there any reasons you or other readers of this would choose to start their investing career in Chicago OVER Milwaukee?

Thanks again and have a great weekend,

J

Hey BiggerPockets community,

I am looking for some advice on location with regards to starting my investment career. I will be looking for multifamily properties ranging in price from $300-$500k in better parts of town with the intent to buy and hold. I, like many others, preferentially value cash flow over the other ways I can build wealth through real estate. I hope to make this my niche and just wanted to see if there were any opinions on location. 

I plan to use property management companies, but like the idea of being able to drive back and forth to a property within a day. I live in the Northern suburbs of Chicago, equidistant from the two cities, hence my interest in Milwaukee and Chicago.

Have been researching Rogers Park, Jefferson Park, Edgewater, Andersonville in Chicago and East Side, Brady Street, Downer Woods in Milwaukee. Can be flexible on the upper end of my price range if the rent to market value ratio and/or number of units were in my favor.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated on these cities or anything in between! 

Jonathan