All Forum Posts by: Jon Rusnak

@Miguel Castillo Congrats on the first deal. If you are going to owner occupy your second building you may be able to do a FHA loan. The FHA loan requires you to live there for a year though which would impact your short term cashflow but after you satisfy the 1 year requirement you can move out and rent the last unit.

How has investing in Aurora been?  My wife and I are looking for a multifamily in the city but I've gone back and forth on whether or not we should start looking in the west suburbs.

@Alex Applebee congratulations and thank you for sharing.  I'm currently in the process of getting my license and had a couple questions about your experience. Can you send me a PM? 

Adam Sporinsky welcome to BiggerPockets! I'm also relatively new to the site but have similar goals and aspirations as yourself. There is a ton of information on the site and I'm glad to help in anyway I can. I have also lived in LP for the past 5 year. Best of luck achieving your goals!

@Nick Patterson @Hope N. @Brian Dowling @Melissa Rios Thanks for the information, I appreciate everyone taking time to post.  I'm new to the BP site and there is definitely a lot of information to take in but I greatly appreciate you sharing your thoughts. 

I'm sure I'll have many more posts to come and can't wait to share my experiences with newer investors after closing a deal.

Cheers!

@Account Closed Thanks for the feedback, I'll have to look in to that a little further.  But perhaps its time to consider a different neighborhood!

@Account Closed Hey Aaron, we would indeed occupy the unit so it seems that the FHA could be an option. With respect to the FHA loan, does it add additional work for the seller or my real estate agent?

Hey Members,

Hopefully everyone is having a great weekend.  I'm looking for some feedback from investors, agents or other real estate professional in the Chicagoland area.  

My wife and I met with a real estate agent in Chicago's West Town neighborhood to discuss purchasing a multifamily home. Based upon our preliminary research and reading different posts here on BiggerPockets it seemed like an FHA loan was a great way to get started in Real Estate Investing (this is our first property). The agent we spoke with was not a huge fan of the FHA loans and recommended putting 20-25% down which based upon current inventory in the West Town / Ukrainian Village neighborhoods would mean that we would need a down payment in the range of $140-$180k. Thats a lot of cash for a beginner.

I was hoping to get a high level understanding of the challenges involved with getting FHA financing. Has anyone gone this route before? Is this in fact a recommended route for new investors? The 20-25% downpayment wouldn't be completely unachievable but would take longer time to save up.

It seemed like this particular agent deals with a lot of wealthy investors in Chicago so perhaps is just not willing to deal with a beginner investor.  Was this a scare tactic?

If the FHA loan is not the best route to get started thats completely fine as we are open to considering different neighborhoods, changing preferences etc. Hoping you could provide some guidance and information regarding the FHA loan process, pros and cons, investing in Chicago, your stories etc. Thanks for reading.

@Dmitriy Fomichenko I appreciate all the links, I can easily say that I have become addicted to spending time on the site.  Whether it be listening to podcasts, webinars or reading through the forums.  The links have been very helpful. 

@Scot Howat Thanks for the tip, I actually get a pretty good amount of training at work regarding the real estate industry so don't intend to pay for education and would rather learn from experience but an open to different avenues.  Thanks for the welcome message, I look forward to connecting in the future.

@Mark Ainley Thanks for the suggestion, I definitely look forward to attending the next meet up. I believe the next Chicago meetup is this coming Tuesday and unfortunately I won't be able to attend because I'll be traveling for work but I do plan on attending going forward.  I'd love to connect sometime and hear about how you got started.

@Mark Nolan I completely agree, I feel that I've already learned a great deal from BP listening to podcasts, webinars and reading the forums.  It has made the commute to work go by quickly.  Eager to learn and eager to succeed.  Thanks for the welcome message.

@Jerry Stanford @Renea Steward Thank you for the welcome message, I appreciate you taking time to post.  I was nervous to post a message at first but am glad I did.  Would love to connect more at the Chicago Meetup.  

@Dale 

@Dale Stevens Agreed, and I definitely appreciate the laugh. I'd be interested in obtaining suggestions for your favorite REI clubs in the area / the clubs that you are involved in.

@Scott Trench Thanks for the welcome.  I will certainly reach out with any questions!

@Brie Schmidt Thanks Brie! From reading through some of the forums I've seen Chicago Roll Call or the like meetings.  Do you know how frequent these meet ups take place or perhaps when the next one is?  I'd love to attend.