All Forum Posts by: Robert Blake

Thanks for the replies so far

I have no intention of doing this without permits or skirting around any laws. 

I’ve reached it to my lawyer to discuss what the rezoning process would look like. They responded that they think it will be difficult but will get me some specifics later.

I bought my first investment property back in November 2017. It's a live in duplex and I rent out one of the units and do AirBNB out of the finished basement. Everything is going great so far and I've been looking into doing my next deal.

In Chicago, the market can be very expensive and I was considering tearing down my detached garage and rebuilding it with an apartment above the garage. I think this could be done for less than 100k and would likely yield at least a 800sqft studio which should bring in about $900/mo in my market. I may even consider doing an AirBNB out of this unit (my current AirBNB is yielding anywhere from $950-$1500/mo). 

Am I missing anything here? Is there something I'm not considering? Is a new garage w/ apartment (and running plumbing, sewer, electric, etc) going to cost me a lot more than 100k?

I was just thinking mainly that I may be able to do my next rental deal quicker if I get a construction loan for a property that I already own.

I had my meeting with Morris Invest today and I have nothing to add except that I was also sent over a price list of the remodel needs. I'm new to this so I don't know if what I'm looking at is reasonable or not. I just bought and am house-hacking a duplex in Chicago. It's my 3rd month doing this. This would be my 2nd rental purchase (3rd 'door').

The first house they sent me was $49500 with a rental rate of $750. They sent the full address and on zillow the neighboring houses are in the $42k-48k value range (pretty much every house on that street and the one behind it, with a handful of $35k properties). The $750 rental rate seems to be in line with the area too.

Not sure what I'm going to do here yet. Obviously the return sounds great, if it can be believed.

What are the opinions on the Woodlawn neighborhood? I’ve visited at night and it seemed safe enough. My sister and I will be living in an owner occupied building and our Irish asses will stick out but if the area is safe, that doesn’t bother us. 

could I ask what neighborhood you went with? 

I’m just about to get started in a Chicago too. Congrats on your first place. 

@Kenneth Garrett   - sorry, I meant to tag you earlier

@Steve Fischer

---sorry I'm learning how to 'tag' people

This sounds too good to be true Steve. I'm extremely green to REI, but what's the catch?? :)