All Forum Posts by: Matthew Holderly

Very nice post @Curtis Rouse Jr - I agree with all of the above, but would add that, assuming you don't have unlimited financing, single family residences (SFR)s will count as a liability for future mortgage qualification purposes because you can't live there yourself while still claiming it as income producing (should you rent out some of the rooms for example). Multifamily properties on the other hand allow you to use a percentage of future rents to qualify initially (with an FHA backed mortgage anyway) and after a few years, you can count the actual income from a multifamily as income for qualification for your next investment. Long story short, SFRs will generally count against you as a liability where multifamily properties will help you qualify now and likely in the future as well.

Welcome to BP, Marcus! I'm not sure how many fellow Pharmacists are in this community, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one. Feel free to PM me if you would like to talk RE. 

Thank you, @Aaron Vaughn and @John Warren - I will PM you both!

Hello BP! I'm a new investor who has just graduated from pharmacy school and passed the IL broker's exam. Does anyone have any recommendations for an investor friendly sponsoring broker in the Chicago area? My main goal is to simply represent myself in my own purchases, but I may represent others from time to time as well. Thank you in advance to anyone who may be able to provide a recommendation!

Hello BP! I'm a new investor who has just graduated from pharmacy school and passed the IL broker's exam. Does anyone have any recommendations for an investor friendly supervising broker in the Chicago area? My main goal is to simply represent myself in my own purchases, but I may represent others from time to time as well. Thank you in advance to anyone who may be able to provide a recommendation!

@Andrew Fowler - I'm in a similar situation, graduating from pharmacy school in about 3 weeks. My student loans are actually so large that, even with a 100K+/year W2 job, I wouldn't be able do much on my own right away. However, I would add a few things that others have not mentioned:

1. How much income will you be earning? Investing from a position of 100K+/year will be a much safer venture compared to 50K/year or less. 

2. Have you considered working with partners or other investors? I will be, and that will allow me to start investing right away. The sooner you can get started, the sooner you will be able to gain experience so that you can be prepared to hit the ground running when you're able to go out and invest on your own (should you choose to do so). My goal is to get started with a tolerable amount of risk - you will have to evaluate your situation and determine how much risk you're willing to take on. Going a bit further with Greg's comments, crashing and burning (and ruining your good credit) are all possible outcomes - even with turnkey investments. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to talk more!

Good question David! If you can qualify for a mortgage/find financing, I'd say go for it! As a student in the same boat (finishing Pharmacy school in May), I'm also looking to purchase my first property soon. Based on what you said, if you haven't been working during school it will be more challenging to get traditional financing. Any outstanding student loans will also make a big difference with traditional financing. Definitely make sure you're speaking to someone qualified about financing and doing everything you need to be doing in order to qualify for financing before you make too many plans! In getting a second loan, (provided your first was backed by FHA) you could definitely get an non-FHA loan. However, if you wanted a second FHA backed loan, you would need to refinance the first loan into a traditional mortgage, as you can only have one FHA loan at a time.

Welcome to BP Brian! My partner and I are in a similar situation - both about to finish grad. school and looking to pick up our first property (3-4 unit) this year via 203k-ing into a distressed property in a B/C neighborhood in the west suburbs. I'm also in the process of getting an IL broker's license and we've been doing a lot of research to add to our low/no money strategy "toolkit" - feel free to PM if you'd like to talk shop!

Others here are spot on - I would add however, that you should not just ask the seller about the permits but have them pulled and reviewed by someone who is knowledgeable to do so. A surprise with permits/zoning can be very costly if/when you make (unknowingly) uninformed decisions. It is unfortunate that not all sellers are truthful or forthcoming about very negative information a truly honest person would be forthcoming about.

For anyone reading this thread, I will echo what Scott said previously regarding Harvey - this is the worst area in Chicagoland I have had the pleasure of venturing into - a true D class neighborhood in my opinion. Unless you are experienced in investing in these neighborhoods, I would look for other opportunities in Chicagoland. Feel free to PM for additional information.