All Forum Posts by: Ryan Hickman

We are thinking about doing a direct mail campaign with our agent for our primary living residence. Demand is higher than normal in the subdivision we are targeting and we have already lost 2/2 homes we were interested in. Are there any cons of a direct mail campaign besides the unnecessary costs? My costs will be about $60 for 200 homes (.30 per home) which isn't too bad but I am thinking if we do directly mail potential home sellers it might give them a false sense of demand and they may ask for more money than they would posting normally. We are not in any rush (we have until August) and are willing to wait until the spring market brings more inventory but we would like to get an edge on the competition and be proactive if possible. We plan on providing no personal information in-case the home owners find it offensive for some reason. Just a phone number using Google voice and a dummy email address. Appreciate any feedback. 

-Ryan

Fiancee' and I are trying to buy our first home and have narrowed down exactly where we want it. Problem is there are only 200 homes total. This location is ideal because it is surrounded by parks, bike trails, and we can walk to public transportation which takes us to work in Chicago; this is rare for living in the suburbs and being reasonably priced. Besides waiting for the selling market to pick-up in Spring is there anything I or my agent can do pro-actively? My agent mentioned she could reach out to local brokers to see if we can get information on sellers before publicized and that she has an application which alerts her when a photographer starts taking pictures of a house to soon be listed. Besides that does anyone have any ideas? 

I do not mind waiting until Spring, we are in no-rush to move, but we have already gotten beat in this subdivision 2x by other buyers, so we are trying to think of how to be more competitive (Yes we know the obvious answer is offer more $). The first time the seller verbally agreed to a negotiated price below asking but then ended up going with a previously interested buyer who fell thorough months prior. The second time we went 2 days after it was posted and they already verbally accepted an offer for above asking which we were not willing to match since in our opinion it is still a buyers market in the Chicago area and based on the previous 2 years worth of data in this subdivision 10/10 homes sold below listing price, so either that buyer was an outlier or the market is shifting (Or other buyers are figuring out how good this location is).

Hi everyone. Thank you for your feedback. We decided not to go with it due to the HOA freeze, the fact that the value has not appreciated since it was built, and your feedback.

Instead we are going to give a foreclosure auction a shot through auction.com for a single family house nearby our primary home. It will need some work but it is vacant,  bid starts at $25,000, pictures are posted, and it is tour-able so it seems to be lower risk than some other foreclosures I have seen and definitely a lot lower risk than the condo which has a HOA freeze and a much higher entry point for a first time investment. 

My fiancee' and I were about to close on a house when the seller's lawyer notified us that the seller had a 2nd mortgage on the house which he owes money on. Apparently the seller's loan company got bought by another company and the seller believed the loan was forgiven since he stopped receiving notifications of due payments. Whether or not the seller's story is true is a different topic but in this scenario should I be worried as a buyer? Can I leverage this to my advantage at-all to get a better investment? If the loan company demands payment and the buyer's do not have it I think the sale will be cancelled by the sellers and the home will become a short-sale for the loan amount + appraisal? 

My fiancee' and I are looking to invest in our first property. We would live in it for a few years then try to rent it out as we buy something larger that is family friendly. The condo is a great deal for the location (downtown Chicago, 13% below median price, 1 minute walk to work and CTA) and even includes a parking spot in the price. The only problem is that the HOA has a rental freeze because they have hit their rental cap of 30% and we would be put on a wait list. Do you still think it is worth buying? Could we ask the HOA how long they think the wait is or what # we would be on the wait list? Does anyone have a similar experience they could share?

It is also worth noting that the condo has not appreciated very-well. Sold for $355,000 in 2005 and now asking price is $365,000. Perhaps this is why the HOA is limiting the rentals.

Thank you for your time.