All Forum Posts by: Aaron Mikottis

 I'm wondering this also, is this for the buy side or the sale side? 

Good to see you pop up again man, I saw you joined our local Joliet investor Facebook group the other day. You should come to our next meetup! 

I am hosting a local meetup in Joliet at La Mex tonight at 630 if you would like to network with other investors and start building your team. The first event is free for all attendees. An attorney will be talking about the changes to the emotional support animal laws in Illinois which may be useful info for you - but the networking is where you will probably get the most value right now. People who attend my meetup have a wide range of experience, some of them full-time investors for multiple decades.

I've never heard of this. It is standard during the closing to receive an assignment of leases. However, getting payment changed over to you from the previous owner sometimes takes months with the HAJ.

I would say, be happy you don't have an inherited tenant. It's not worth the fight for an unknown party for 1 month of rent. The move-out is always a big question mark when you have no history with the tenant. 

Side note and this has nothing to do with internal HAJ policy, but my lease requires a 30-day notice for move out. Under my lease, they would be responsible for January rent. If you did get a lease assigned you may be able to try to get it out of the Housing Authority that way. 1 day notice is ridiculous by any standard. If there is no "notice clause"  you are out of luck for sure. This would be worth an email but not worth taking to court.

Reviving an old thread here...

The City of Joliet just passed an ordinance bringing SFRs into the inspection program. I work for a management company called Future Vision that specializes in the Joliet market if anyone needs help or wants to chat about what to expect.

Hey Felise! I run a Joliet specific investors meetup group. We've been on hold the past couple of months due to COVID but we'll be back in action as soon as it is safe to gather. Feel free to look us up on Facebook under "Joliet Real Estate Investors". We typically have meetings monthly and events are posted on FB and Biggerpockets.

@Garrett Tierney,

One downside to Section 8 right now is that the Trump admin cut their funding so no rent raises are possible at this time. To get higher rent you will need to get a new tenant. My average tenant stays 2-3 years so it's been okay for me.

Another thing to consider is that the $1,500 does not include the utility allowance, which, unless you pay all the bills directly (definitely do not recommend) you need to subtract the standards from the gross rent. My guess is that the bump is very minimal this coming year but it depends on the exact setup in your property: https://www.hajoliet.org/sites...

Looks great - did you refininsh the hardwood floors or were they ok?

@Garrett Tierney really nailed it with his analysis. I invest on the west side of Joliet as well and just wanted to chime in about the credit scores. Joliet is a blue collar city so lower than average credit scores are to be expected. For my screening criteria, I require all utility bills to be current and anything in collections must be on a payment plan that is being paid. I see a lot of medical debt causing issues and that's a totally different story - in a lot of cases that has almost nothing to do with someone's financial responsibility. I also say no prior evictions, no pets, and no violent crime in the background.

Demand on the rental market is very strong so I have no problem finding qualified tenants with that criteria.

@Brian Geiger my portfolio is a mix of market rate and Section 8 units - if you are open to working with the program you can really boost your cash flow. The trick is buying with the intent of going Section 8 (picking the right bedroom counts, NOT going into C or D neighborhoods, and rehabbing for higher abuse) and screening the tenants just as thoroughly as normal. The Housing Authority of Joliet is actually decent as far as HUD goes and believe it or not, some of my best tenants are on Section 8.

An example of one of my Section 8 properties is a 2-flat in St Mary's - purchased for $122k and spent ~$29k on repairs. Both units are 3 beds so each collects $1,420. $2,840 a month total on $151k invested. Not quite 2% but not bad.

Great job! Got any photos you are willing to share? I'm a fellow Joliet investor and would love to see the before and afters.

I had a last minute emergency, tonight's meetup is canceled.