All Forum Posts by: Victor So

@Stephen DeFalco

Hey Stephen, are you looking to house-hack at all? If so, there are so many different options. I’ve househacked in Niles, Norwood park, Pulaski park, and uptown and so I’ve been all over. I’ve acquired 7 units that way.

But just like how others mentioned, consider where you want to live or feel comfortable living in and go from there. Consider the different financing options available too (fha, conventional, etc).

@Alex Tokmazeyskiy

Hey Alex,

I don't want to add to the fire… but yeah, HOAs can suck. Haha. I used to have a condo in that area and HOA fees were high. It went from 816 to 956 in a year. But they tend to be pretty high in that area, especially in the high rises. And a lot of those buildings tend to be older, so there can be some hefty special assessment fees. And my HOA was super strict about every little thing especially when it came to rehabs.

Also. In my unit, the previous owner got slapped with a 25K special assessment for the replacement of windows.

There were a lot of other issues too but make sure to do due diligence before investing in condos especially in that area.

Sorry for the “negative” post. Haha I hope someone has some positive condo stories.

@Jermaine Martin

Hey Jermaine!

Sounds like you have many options! You could do a cash out refi on your property and pull money out, use a heloc, sell the property and do a 1031 exchange, etc.

But if I were you, before I do anything, I would househack by buying a 2-unit or 3-unit with a fha loan or some other low down payment loan, living in one unit, and renting out extra spaces or units. This is the “cheapest” and most practical way to get into real estate and also exposes you to property management and landlording. Once you househack your own property, I’m pretty sure you’ll be confident to proceed with other ways of real estate investing.

Hope this helps!

@Tayo O.

Hm, weird. I was able to refi into a conventional from fha and then use another fha to buy my next multi-family right away.

@Kim Tolentino hey! Just Sent you a DM!

@Christian Bernhagen

@Christian Bernhagen

I use a broker for all my deals. All my tenants are on month to month leases and if you screens well they should have no problems with each other. The only time I’ve had issues is when I didn’t screen well.

Airbnb has been great for me. When I can’t find a long-term tenant in between vacancies I rent out the rooms on airbnb and despite covid, I’ve had 90-95% bookings. In fact, covid has actually helped the cause since many of my guests were those who had jobs in the city but due to covid couldn’t go into work. They didn’t want to live in the city so temporarily rented my rooms on airbnb.

Some municipalities are very anti-airbnb (ex. Park ridge) but many support it. So do your due diligence to know who cities allow for airbnb and laws surrounding airbnb. For example, During covid, Chicago didn’t allow 1 day bookings so I had to change all of my bookings to minimum 2 days.

@Christian Bernhagen

Hey Christian,

I had the same issue as you initially when I started out househacking. In addition to everything you’ve mentioned, I couldn’t find a property that I could get enough rents to cover the mortgage. So I had to be a little creative.

I was able to make the numbers work by finding multi-units with bonus rooms or sections that I could potentially rent out. And instead of renting by unit, I rent by rooms.

For example, I currently live in a duplex on the Northwest side of Chicago where I live on the 1st floor and rent by room on the 2nd floor (3 bedrooms). I charge $700 bucks a month per room so I get $2100 bucks total. If I had to rent the entire unit out, I could maybe get 1300-1400. I also rent the rooms in my basement (which has sort of an in law set up) on airbnb. Initially, I thought this would be a lot more work but I have great tenants who barely call me for anything.

Anyways, this is what I did. Hope this helps!

@Katie Balascsak Hey Katie! The FHA (and 203k) loan could be a great way for those with less capital to get into real estate investing. I used it once just to experiment with it and there are definitely pros and cons to it.

The pro is that rehab costs will be built into your loan so you won’t come out of pocket. Also, you’ll have a contractor and consultant to guide you through the process.

However, because of so many people involved, the process often times takes longer for the rehab process to end. And especially if your municipality or city gives you a hard time about something (permits, inspections, etc) it can take even longer because you’ll have to work together with the contractor and consultant to resolve the issue. Also, everyone gets paid out directly by the bank so there’s tons of paperwork and coordinating that goes on between everyone involved to make sure everyone gets paid. And of course, you’ll have to manage the contractors and not all contractors are very engaged and easy to work with.

I’ve heard of very successful 203k loan stories. For me, it took a whole year just for my rehab to finish. Overall, I’m thankful I went through it because I learned a lot. And while I’m not here to scare you, I just want you to be aware of the obstacles you may come across.

@John Moorhouse

Hey,

One option to qualify for a loan at a young age is to have a co-signer (who has a stable income, good credit on the loan, etc) so you can get a low down payment conventional loan (3-5%) that you can househack. (ex. Mom, dad, sister, brother).

@Joshua Schaffner Hey Joshua, along with the advice given above, another option would be to have a co-signer (someone with a stable job, good credit, etc) so that you’d qualify for a low down payment (3-5%) on a property you can househack.