All Forum Posts by: Ricardo Delgado

@Nate Grabner

I was in your position as well. I ended up house hacking a 2 flat with a garden unit in West Humboldt Park. If you can rent out the rooms in your unit even better for your cashflow.

If you have any questions about Humboldt Park feel free to reach out.

I would look into Hermosa, only issue is no train to get to downtown quickly ( have to take a bus to the blue line).

Big fan of the areas your looking into.

Good luck with everything!

@Mark Ainley

Thank you very much. I’ll take a look and reach out to the lawyer once we’re ready to move forward.

@Evan

Thank you! Have you helped with off market deals before? Feel free to message me.

@Corby Goade

I plan on purchasing, doing some renovations and keeping as a rental.

No intention to wholesale or flip.

Thank you for the response!

Good morning everyone,

I started marketing to absentee owners in my market (Chicago land Area). I have 2 leads that seem very promising and want to know how I should go about sending an offer.

The current owners want to meet but I want to have offers written up or a contract to see if we can come to an agreement.

Should my next step be to consult with an attorney?

I want to structure a cash offer/hard money loan, and a seller finance option.

Anyone that has any tips on what to do next? Or can recommend an attorney that I should talk to?

Thank you.

@John Casmon

Hi John will this be virtual? Where can we get more information?

Thanks

@Sean McKee

I use the cozy application. My criteria is as followed:

I make sure there are no evictions.

Credit score above 600 (preferably).

Rent at or below 33% of their Monthly income.

And I would recommend Calling employers and past landlords for references.

The more you add to the screening process the better in my opinion. Especially in an up and coming area like little village.

Best of luck to you. And sorry for the delayed response.

@Sean McKee

Congrats on the purchase! I own a 4 unit in little village as well. I currently do security deposits. But have strongly considered a move-in Fee.

Biggest advice is make sure your extremely picky with all applicants. I get a lot of people that have bad credit and want to move in Next Day or ASAP. Stick to your process and whatever you decide would work in my opinion.

@Jay Garrison

Hi Jay,

I had a guy cut a tree down for me. I can give you his number and he can give you a quote.

@Johnny Alvarez

Welcome to Chicago and welcome to BP!

I’ll try my best to answer your questions.

I had the same idea as you when I first started.

1. There’s a lot of neighborhoods that will work for house hacking in Chicago. Really depends on your budget and where your comfortable living. I’ve personally considered East little village, West Humboldt Parky, McKinley Park, and Hermosa. But there’s a lot of other areas that would work.

Avondale and Ukraine village are great areas but prices tend to be higher than some of these up and coming areas that I’ve mentioned.

2. Im not too familiar with markets outside of Chicago so I’d love to hear what others have to say about this. I would say Chicago has plenty of multi units to choose from and many neighborhoods can be considered block by block. For example South of grand maybe even Division in west Humboldt Park gets very sketchy. North of Grand is generally a sweet spot.

3. I would strongly recommend a low down payment option ( 3.5% FHA or 5% conventional if you qualify or it's available.)

This way you have reserves and are able to make some renovations to increase rents and the increase value of the property in order to refinance in the future to remove PMI.

You'll still pay PMI with a 5 % conventional Loan but from what I understand PMI will drop once you hit 80% LTV (Ask lender).

Best of Luck to you and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.