All Forum Posts by: Sean Anggani

@Crystal Smith thank you so much for this advice. Because of this, I compared the comparable rents in the area, and saw that rents range from $2,400 for places that are much older and less furnished than mine, all the way up to $3,950 for spectacular premium living spaces. This really gives me much more peace of mind to invest in my place.

@Jonathan Klemm I love this advice, because my initial plan was actually to get a multi unit! However, I had a difficult time finding a multi-unit for 400k where the public transport commute to downtown Chicago is <30 minutes (which is nonnegotiable for me since I work downtown) which is why I eventually settled on the live-in flip strategy.

Would you perhaps have any area suggestions that is safe and might have multi-units in this price range? I'd really appreciate it

Thank you so much for the responses everyone! This is all really great advice. So to recap:

I should calculate the ROI and compare with where I can get a similar return. @Paul De Luca @Matthew Irvine do you think 12-15% ROI is a good ROI? Honestly it sounds good to me since that is more than what my stocks return.

@John Warren I really like how you are thinking about this, going backwards to solve the problem, I'll do some research!

@Jonathan Klemm my next goal would be to further increase cash flow by buying another property where I can buy >1 unit so that I can live in one and rent the other. Obviously, if there is a better opportunity like a good BRRR I might take it as well

I recently bought a not-too-bad 2b2b condo for 395k at 20% down in West town Chicago that I intend to sell in > 5 years, I intend to live in it for 2 years, and rent the remaining years before selling the property. The total monthly mortgage payment with HOA included sums up to 2,300. There is a 15-25k room for improvement by upgrading the kitchen and both bathroom countertops that would make this place even nicer to live in, but am wondering whether it is worth it from an investment perspective. What data do you use to evaluate whether a rehab is worth it?

For context, right before I bought the property, it was renting $2,600-2,700 and the other apartments of similar size are also renting for the same value currently ($2,600). When I bought it,  I invested ~7k already to upgrade all the oven, microwave, dishwasher, and repainted the walls, with the hope that this will push the rent up. My hope for putting this money down is a 2-3x return, is this realistic? From a rental perspective, how much increase in rent can I expect?

Would really appreciate any insight!

Hi everyone!  I'm a newbie here buying my first condo property here in West Town Chicago, and am wondering if anyone has bought property with or has thoughts on an interest-only loan that is fixed rate for x amount of years (<30) instead of a regular fixed 30 year mortgage for the sake of maximizing the equity you get when you sell?

For context:
I intend to live in the unit for at least 2 years, then rent it out (cash flow is ~200$/month in the current market, way less than 1% cap rate), and eventually planning to sell it in 5 years where hopefully the appreciation has kicked in so that I can use it as a down payment for a duplex to start building more wealth. 

The reason I'm considering this is a regular 30-year mortgage starts off with me paying $465 for principal and $1020 for interest per month, whereas with the interest only loan with fixed 10 year rate: I will start with paying $564 of principal (with the same total monthly payment). So just as a ballpark, averaging that 100$ over 5 years is an additional $6000 into the equity, which is not a lot but not nothing either.

Of course, there is additional risk with taking this interest-only loan which is only fixed rate for 10 years, but in my mind it seems very unlikely that I won't be able to sell the house in 5 years (between 5th year of when I start trying to sell and the fixed rate of 10 years). Do you think it's worth taking that risk? Is there something I might be missing? Would really appreciate all your inputs, thank you!