All Forum Posts by: Patrick Pan

Hi Doria,

Thanks for your reply and sorry to hear your bad news. You should be able to qualify for health care premium subsidy since you were laid off. The open enrollment for 2017 will start soon; November 1st. You should shop at healthcare dot gov to look for a plan that fits your situation. With ACA, most of your premium will be paid for. When you enter the income for next year, make sure you only enter the amount that you would collect from unemployment benefits for 2017. If you happen to make more next year (found a new job, etc), that's great. You can pay back the subsidy later during tax time. If you need more info, feel free to PM me.

Take care,

Patrick

Hi,

I recently left the corporate world to become a full time real estate investor. I've been doing it a bit over a decade. My strategy is pretty simple; purchase, rehab, rent. Rinse and repeat. Tenants pay for my mortgages and I have a little bit of cash flow left.

When I was working for corporations, they paid for most of my health care expense. Now I'm on my own and wonder how other investors (self employed) handle the health care issue. I'm a healthy single who hardly see the doctor (except for annual check up). Therefore I had the high deductible plan with HSA (Health Saving Account) when I was employed. It was a great way to save money funding my own HSA account instead of paying pricey premium. Amount contributing to HSA also reduced taxable income. It was a great setup. I wonder whether this option is available for self employed like us. I did some google search and it seemed available. However when I discussed this with my current health care provider (blue cross), they didn't know what to say. I wonder if I have to find the health care provides that have this option. 

What kind of health care do you have as a full time real estate investor? Please share your experience.

Thank you,

Patrick

Thank you everyone for sharing your opinions.

Hello everyone,

I recently evicted a tenant and had to concede to the demand to conceal this eviction record during the negotiation. It's not fair for his future landlords not to know about this terrible tenant. Anyhow this makes me afraid of accepting someone who got their eviction record concealed. I've heard that in California, the eviction record is automatically concealed for 30 days (yuck!). I wonder how long it's concealed in Illinois.

How to find the prospect concealed eviction records in Cook county? Does physically going to downtown reveal more info than the Cook County Circuit court website?

Thanks,

Patrick

Frank, thanks for your reply.

CHA itself has problems. Whenever any problems arise, they stop the payment first. Yuck. For example, they lost a paper that one of my S8 tenants submitted. They stop the payment. WTH! Maybe you're in the area that S8 treat you better. In my area (low income), S8 itself is the problem. Anyhow, I purposely did not report S8 because I didn't want her to lose the voucher. It's a lot easier for her to move when she has the voucher. It may not sound right to you but do you want to be right or be rich. I choose the latter.

Thanks,

Hi Matthew,

Thank you for another great reply. Luckily I don't have any security deposit with this tenant. I inherited her when buying the condo. She's Section8 and needs to move within 90 days before her moving paper expires. Would it be wise to just keep filing continuance until she moves out? She has to move out before the moving paper expires or Section8 will kick her out of the program. 

Please advise,

John/Ronan, thanks for your response. I agree that broke tenants is bad. I never wanted one. However this one came with the property that I purchased a bit ago. :-(

In the lease, both lessor and lessee agree that if we have legal fight, the attorney fee that the non-prevailing party have to pay is no more than $500. This is to deter exactly this type of attorney. We both signed it. I wonder if it has been tested in other states/cities.

Hi,

Most Chicago landlords probably heard of the jury demand tactic that tenants use to delay the eviction cases. I had one many years ago and luckily the rent was paid by the third party in the end. The case was dismissed. Now I'm facing another. Not sure what to expect. My attorney told me that very few jury demand cases actually go all the way to jury trial. Most settle before that (either agree on prolong stay or reduce the rent owe or both). What I don't understand is how the low income tenant attorney makes money. They'd better not try to collect from LL.

I've heard of the modification to stream line jury demand process by Cook county judges in 2015. Not sure about the details. 

Please share your experience. Any tips/advice is appreciated. 

Thank you,

Thanks everyone for responding.

Issac Jones, I just PM you.

Matthew Olszak, Normally CL gives me tons of call. I just rented one on the south side a a month ago. Couple weeks ago, another one became vacant... I'll try other channels as you suggested.

Mark Ainley, I'll PM you my CL post link.

Hi,

I'm trying to rent a two bed one bath apartment in the south side of Chicago (around 51st and Cottage Grove). I've been posting many ads on Craig's list for couple weeks and only received a few calls. This is too quiet. Does anyone experience the same thing? Do renters slow down moving already? Please share your experience.

Thanks,

Patrick