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All Forum Posts by: Robert Andersen

Robert Andersen has started 3 posts and replied 20 times.

If you drive down any block on the north side of Chicago you're going to see two flats that all have illegal non conforming basements. Don't let the above posters scare you.

legalizing the basement would generally mean underpinning which is extremely expensive.

Keep renting it or sell and list it as a non conforming basement unit. This will increase the sale price. Plenty of investors out there are interested in these.

Square footage is about 1250.

Just posting an update. Took 2.5? months to rent the unit. Dropping the rent didn't make any difference in the quality of tenant I was getting so I went back up and just waited. 

I had the same tenant problems at 1500 that I did at 1700. This advice may work in other scenarios but for me it was bad advice. 

Ended up renting at 1600 with tenant paying all utilities except water with a one year lease. I'll see if they stay after the lease is up. 

I think the area is the biggest problem or at least from the perspective of the tenants I had looking at it. That was the one recurring complaint that came up over and over. The building is located on the north/east side of humblt park next to logan square. I had a few people mention that they were concerned with the area. I live here and there's buildings three blocks away worth close to million so I don't know what that's all about. I even left the garage open on accident for a day and nothing was stolen. 

Originally posted by @Michael K.:

@Robert Andersen read through all the other posts which answered my original questions. What do the pictures look like? Any chance you would be willing to share your rental posting (could PM me)? And what is the scope of the construction going on? That might just be your Achilles heel here.

Ten days? ago or so I had a advertising agency take over finding tenants. They took professional photos and a video of the property. Construction was being done on the basement unit and it's no longer visible when the building is being shown. 

I sent you a link to connect. I'll message you a link to the listing. I don't want it posted publicly. 

I'll lower the price again to 1500 and post back with the results. I think It's kind of silly at this point as I'm 200/300 cheaper then most of the surrounding properties but I'll give it a go. 

Originally posted by @Rafael Ramirez:

@Robert Andersen

I went from 1450 to 1250 on a unit.... You can do it! I rented it on November as well. So you still have a chance. Patience is key.

I'm getting good applications here and there at 1600 but things seem to keep coming up like the rental company bombing it or the tenant showing up and saying they want the garage if there going to rent it despite the advertisement saying street parking only. I've also had people show up saying they have pets when I told them no pets. It's just a headache. 

1250 on a fully renovated three bedroom apartment would be insane. I'd be selling the building if that's all I could get. My neighbor is getting 1500 and his apartment isn't renovated at all but it's a little bigger. 

Originally posted by @Rafael Ramirez:

@Robert Andersen

Hey Robert, how are you doing now with the unit?

 Still not rented. Lowering the price didn't seem to do anything as far as getting higher quality tenants or less sob stories. 

I've just been having bad luck with it and there seems to be a massive amount of vacant properties in Chicago right now. If you look on Aparpments.com or Zillow it's ridiculous the number of buildings up for rent. I've been watching other apartments that have been sitting on market for two months. 

I gave it to a rental advertising company and they had a few applications but I turned them down because of collections on there credit report. I'm not taking any chances on questionable tenants with the Chicago eviction moratorium still going. The rental advertising company also scared away a good tenant by trying to tell them they had to move sooner. 

I'm not sure I'd invest in Chicago again.

Thank you all for the advice. I took and it made some changes. 

Lowered the rent to 1600 a month with now means it's one of the cheaper properties in the area according to Craigslist, Zillow, Apartments.com. It's a good thing I gave my self a large margin of error when purchasing this property. I can go down to 1500 and still have all the bills covered. 

I'm also approaching the 20th. If I don't have it rented by the end of the month I'll take it down and relist it as Brie said. 

I contacted some of the prior applicants and they said they had concerns about the area. Why apply to an apartment when you already know it's not in the area you want? This may have been my fault with the marketing. I told them the area has only gotten good within the past 5 years while they were visiting. I'm going to revise this and tell everyone it's a wonderful area with no crime. Can't be honest I guess. 

Originally posted by @John Warren:

@Robert Andersen you are most definitely too high if that is what you are getting. Drop the price to $1650 or $1595 (if you can stomach it). Try listing with a lower rent price but building back up towards the price you want with pet fees, parking fees, storage fees, etc. At the end of the day, you would be much better off making $1500 per month and having tenants with 700 plus credit scores than if you stretch and try to get that $1700 but get a bad tenant.... ask me how I know!

I could try lowering the price but I don't understand how my price is to high when apartments within four blocks are listed at 1800/1900 that haven't been renovated and the apartment I have listed has a new bathroom/kitchen and central ac/heat.

Originally posted by @Paul De Luca:

@Robert Andersen

Are you sure the rent isn't too high? @Mark Ainley recently pointed out on the Straight Up Chicago Investor podcast that you know your rental is overpriced when you're only getting sob stories and Section 8 applicants. People that are adamant about moving in as soon as possible or they want to pay in months of rent in advance are red flags too.

Could you list all of your tenant screening criteria?

The building is on the northeast side of Humboldt park next to Logan square. I ran comps and everyone in the area is asking a comparable amount for rent. Between 1600 to 1900. Maybe the rent is to high but from what I've seen everyone else is asking the same amount. 

The screening criteria doesn't seem to matter as people ignore it. I've gotten qualitied tenants but they want a lot of concessions like parking in the garage and they have a dog despite me saying no pets on the application. 

I lost a few other good tenants because I'm still doing construction on the building and they didn't want the noise. 

Screening criteria was:

No pets, no prior evictions and 3x rent. 

I don't know if I'm just being to picky, if the rent isn't right for the area or if it's a combination of the above issues. 

Recently posted a 3 bedroom completely renovated apartment on Zillow, Craigslist, Domu and Apartments.com. The apartment is in a good area of Chicago.I've gotten nothing but awful applicants despite being very clear in the description of the property that I'm going to be doing a background check and not accepting tenants with prior evictions or bad credit. 

Rent is listed at 1700 and I keep getting applicants with a combined income and three kids making 38k/48k. The numbers don't work. You can't afford 1700 a month making 38k with three kids and a car payment. 

The listings been up for 15 days and I've gotten close to 100 messages combined from all the platforms listed. Out of those 100 maybe 15 turned into showings and out of that 15 two took an application then never filled it out. 

I'm also getting a lot of section 8 applicants that are very militant with wanting to move in right away. I've had them make threats against me when I tell them I'm going to be doing a background check. 

How do I avoid all this mess?

I'm currently using Facebook market place, Zillow, Apartments.com, Craigslist and Domu. 

Zillow and Facebook market has generated the most leads. I've got 6 people scheduled for a tour tomorrow with the apartment being on market for five days. Zillow generated 40+ messages but most of those don't translate to phone calls to schedule a tour/application. 

Apartments.com has been worthless with zero leads or messages coming from it. 

Craigslist I've gotten three phone calls. 

Domu I just signed up for so no data yet. 

Are tenant finding services worth it? I've found several that promise to remove the headache of dealing with applicants.