All Forum Posts by: Paul Bommarito

@Robert Carmody thank you, very helpful. This won’t work in our case based on the states so that clears this up thank you

@Lydia S. yes, I am aware of that. But Redfin agents, to my knowledge, give back part of their commission to you at closing time, so you end up putting less down. I know I could try to negotiate this with any agent, but I don’t really want to offend anyone. It simply does not make sense to me though for them to take 3% if we do the majority of the work finding the property and evaluating areas, which we will likely do in our situation

Does anyone have any experience buying with a Redfin agent? I am just having a hard time using a traditional agent when they take 3% to not do a whole lot besides set us up on the MLS. However, I am not sure how reliable using a Redfin agent to buy is and if there are additional concerns I should have in terms of closing or anything else. I completely understand the value of good realtors, but in our situation, we can likely find what we are looking for on our own, and then the inspection, attorney, lender, and title company will do most of the rest. So honestly it feels like all we need a realtor for is to write an offer letter.

Hi Ranice, I can give you my contractors info. I am not sure if his team will go that far south, but you are more than welcome to ask him. He does rehabs on small multi units all the time and can do everything you are looking to do 

Curious if anyone is aware what transpired to bring on the new CEO/President, DeAnn O'Donovan. I am an investor and was talking to someone about the fund, and they actually said they had concerns over the Glassdoor reviews. I did not think to look at those before investing, but I also typically feel that people only write reviews if they have an experience that is either really good or really bad, so was hard for me to really take this into consideration when their performance has been just as expected for both funds

@Allan Szlafrok wow thank you, did not know that existed.

@Eric Michaels I did not know that, thank you. I just checked our local Home Depot on the app and sure enough it’s not even an option. I read somewhere that it is only for pottable water though, so could we use it for the pipes that are used for the laundry machines? If not I will just do copper and insulation

@Mark Ainley, thank you for all the tips and advice. I am sure you have seen a ton of different issues with that many units.

Can you share an example of a gutter heater? I am not familiar with those and can’t seem to find it online.

Do you continue to use copper if the pipe breaks? Or are there other materials you like to use?

Thanks again, would love to connect at some point if you are ever downtown

As I am sure most people are aware, we just went through some of the coldest days in Chicago's history. Many people had pipes burst and as I walked out of Home Depot this morning, everyone had pipe insulation, new copper pipes, and a variety of other materials to help deal with the devastation that the cold can cause. We were not spared from this and had two pipes burst in our laundry room. I should have expected this given that there is no heating in that area. So below are some lessons I have learned, and would love to hear anyone else's tips/tricks and also thoughts on what we should do now that we have to replace a bunch of pipes. Should we switch to PEX or PVC over copper?

1. Insulate all the pipes that you can if you live in a cold area. Pipe insulation is not very expensive, and if it saves you from having a pipe burst, this could save you thousands in damages.

2. If you know really cold weather is coming, and you have areas of pipe that are more likely to freeze, consider turning off the water to that area before the cold comes, and emptying those pipes as best as possible. This is something we should have done, but did not know any better unfortunately. Had we done this early last week, there would have been no water in these pipes to freeze and burst.

3. Depending on the space in the home or property, consider adding baseboard electric heaters to the room to help keep it warmer in the winter. We were not aware of these, and now that we know you can buy them for $100 or less, we will be installing one or two in our unheated laundry room area and storage room, and have these keep the temperature warmer in the winter so the pipes stay running.

Would love to hear any other thoughts! (I read to leave your faucets dripping, and that did not help unfortunately. Maybe if I left it running a little stronger, but I did not like that idea too much...)

Nickolas, congrats on making this decision so young. Pretty awesome that you have already cemented this mindset so early.

My wife and I acquired a 4 flat late last year and are househacking. A 100% agree with everything everyone else has already said, and would add a few notes/recommendations below

1. Figure out if you want to buy turnkey or if you want to do some rehab. This is very important because dealing with contractors or rehabbing yourself (both of which we did) is a lot on top of being a landlord

2. Be conservative on all of your numbers. This will help make sure you make a good decision on the property and if things go better than expected that is great.

3. Depending on when you start feeling more comfortable, start seeing properties sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t go in ready to buy right away, but I think it is really important to start getting a feel for what this really is

4. Find a really good/reliable inspector when you find the property. The cosmetic and small stuff is not a concern. But if anything is wrong structurally or has major plumbing issues, you are probably going to want to avoid those. Try to read up on ways to spot big issues so that you can try to start identifying them on your own

5. It’s awesome that you are saving for the down payment, but make sure you are also saving for unforeseen expenses (e.g. furnace goes out in Year 1)

6. Read Brandon and Heather’s book on managing rental properties, this is a very technical and helpful book and they give you a ton of free resources that you will want to use

7. Lean on this community. It is impossible to predict or know everything that is going to happen, but taking action is the only way you will really start to learn.