All Forum Posts by: Svend W.

Hi everybody

I recently acquired an old house which has the furnace and water heater in an uninsulated attic.

I intend to eventually finish the attic as an ADU--during which time time I'll move the insulation from the attic floor to the rafters--but for now it's uninsulated and gets really cold.

What would you do to protect the water heater (which I just replaced)? Is an insulation blanket enough for Chicago winter?

Thanks.

Thanks, @Matthew Wilson!

Thanks, @Jonathan Klemm. I will DM you.

Thanks, @Jared Hottle. I have similar concerns. I'm also in a highly tenant-friendly jurisdiction.

The reason I advertised as having a w/d before it was confirmed was that I initially thought it would be easy to set up upstairs in a large unfinished attic which already has the hookups. But then I realized the w/d must be in the unit after I insulate the attic (didn't realize at first I'd have to insulate the attic floor--thought I'd be insulating the roof, but I guess that would cause headaches since it would mean the tenant is paying to heat the attic; a rookie mistake, I'm sure).

It's a century-old house and there are some complications in the layout (e.g., the easiest solution would involve cutting into a really beautiful old backsplash behind the the kitchen sink) and the fact that everything is otherwise done (i.e., we don't have open walls). It's complicated enough that the 1st GC I met--whose estimate I'm still waiting on--suggested instead splitting the hookup on the floor *above* and running those new lines down. And then there's the drain required--I guess my preferred location (in the kitchen, next to the fridge) might be tricky from a code perspective.

Hopefully, things will get clarified within a few days, but right now it's a bit open-ended.

Things would be really easy if I just dispensed with the w/d, but I figure that would be a deal-breaker for the kind of tenants I'm targeting.

Thanks.

Thanks, David. I agree that the best solution would be to get it taken care of quickly so that it's a moot point, which is certainly what I'm trying to do.

The wheels are turning a bit slowly with the contractors I've met so far and it's a bit late in the rental season, so I was brainstorming about different approaches should I want to lock down a tenant before the work is done but also before tenant interest dies down. 

Thank to our weather, Chicago's rental season is very spring and summer oriented (like they say in Game of Thrones, "Winter is coming!").

Hi all

I have a 2 BR in Albany Park. It's still vacant, but I am looking at prospective tenants now and hoping to put somebody in soon.

It doesn't have laundry yet, but I plan to put in a new stacked washer dryer in the unit ASAP.

I'm advertising it as having in-unit laundry and am working on getting quotes for splitting water & gas for the laundry right now.

What I'm wondering is how to handle the rent while this gets sorted out.

How much would you discount the rent on a nice, newly rehabbed 2 BR in Albany Park for laundry being unavailable?

Since I expect this to be resolved soon, my assumption that the right way to cover myself is to state that laundry will be provided in the lease but add an addendum indicating what the discount is in the event the laundry is unavailable for some reason.

Thanks

Any recommendations on inexpensive and user-friendly solutions for the occasional secure file transfer from applicants and tenants? 

In my case, it's mainly for getting a picture of any Social Security Cards before signing the lease electronically, so it's pretty infrequent. Wouldn't want the tenant to send that to me by email or SMS due to identity theft concerns, but would also prefer not to do tech support on the ins and outs of file sharing with Dropbox or whatever.

Thanks.

The CAR lease is great, but it contains a bit of language that doesn't apply to my situation, so I was reluctant initially (e.g., I don't know what the legal implications are of leaving the "Guaranty" section at the end blank). But I ended up using it anyway.

I didn't see that particular file in the Illinois ZIP file--maybe I was looking in the wrong place?--but I found it elsewhere online.

Just curious: Who created the Chicago Residential Lease available in the download section?

Not asking out of any particular concern about its content. I just would like to know this when deciding whether to rely on it given all the intricacies of the RLTO.

Speaking of which, adding a cover sheet with that info would be helpful IMO. (I think this is what the Chicago Association of Realtors does with their sample lease, for example.)

Thanks.