All Forum Posts by: Wendell De Guzman

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar

Steve Burk, I am also in the suburbs of Chicago - Downers Grove to be exact. A good REI group here is CCIA (Chicago Creative Investors Association). The meeting is once a month (every third Sunday of the month).

Only watch out of CCIA and other REI groups is they make money off of you from the courses that the real estate gurus pitch. There's nothing wrong with that because that's how I learned 10 years ago...but a lot of the things you will learn from the gurus are things you will learn for free here in BP.

T V, welcome to BP.
I am based in the Chicago area and yes, values are still reasonable. Dupage county is climbing FAST though and there are many desirable cities in that county. That's where I am focusing my acquisition right now.

Have you lined up your financing?
Also, what about property management - do you have a company identified already who will manage your properties for you?

Personally, I try to stay away from out of state investing for single family homes (but I am OK buying 12 hours away if it's for an apartment complex).

I am frustrated by how slow Equity Trust is in responding to my Direction of Investments. It's been 2 weeks and they have not released the check to the company I am investing my SDIRA with.

I have to follow them up several times and no one has called me back.
I am calling them now as I type this and I am hold for a long time.

Do you have similar experiences with Equity Trust and what other SDIRA custodians are better to deal with? What are their costs? Are they comparable with Equity Trust?

Here's a possible way to do it. Have 2 LLCs. One LLC is the managing LLC and the other LLC is the owner of the property. The funds can be transferred from your US bank account to both LLCs. The utilities will be in the managing LLC (property management). The owner LLC can be transferred to your mom later on.

This is just an idea. Of course consult a CPA and an attorney licensed in your state to do this in the right way.

Sergio B., you can do:
1. Get a loan against it (either a HELOC or a first mortgage) since property is free and clear; or
2. You can use it as collateral to buy a more expensive property
- for example, I got an apartment building for no money down and took over the loan but I pledged one of my free clear house as collateral if I fail to make the payment
3. You can also do a 1031 Exchange & exchange to a bigger property with a bigger cashflow and the transaction is tax free
4. Since the house is in your corporation, you can also sell your corporation (partially or entirely) to an investor and get cash (of course consult your CPA and real estate attorney in your state if you decide to do this)

David Barlow, are you still looking to acquire more sec 8 rentals these days? If so, what's a good deal for property suitable for sec8? It's good to find a lot of real estate investors here in the Chicago area. I am based in Downers Grove.

Jean Norton, if you have properties in Westmont, Willowbrook, Hinsdale, Lisle or Downers Grove areas in Chicagoland, let me know asap.

Carolina E, I am also based in the Chicagoland area based specifically in Downers Grove. What field of real estate do you specialize in?

Kimberly H., welcome to BP. Our company is based in Downers Grove but we have properties all over the Chicagoland area. It's good to know there are a lot of real estate professionals in Chicago here in BP.

BP rocks! There's more networking here than in expensive mastermind groups!