Finally ended back in Chicago, worked for a local hyper early-stage startup in the PropTech space, and then most recently left there and started a general contracting company focused on transparency and technology.If you are ever in the windy city definitely look us up!

I adviced him on getting a HELOC but he wasn’t interested he’s very conservative not in a stage of life that he wants to start any new ventures..

In the end it boiled down to your current situation.1) Where are you in the stage of your investing?

Staged the home.

Refinancing with the intent to move would be considered fraud.As an aside; not sure you really need an LLC at this stage of the game. 

This will be by far my biggest purchase and stage of my life so I just want to do it right.

Staging matters (I knew this, but hubby wasn't sold) Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

We went through a stage where we were sure that was the way to go too.. but based on what was available on the market, came to the conclusion it’d make more sense to build - esp if like they say, you pull mostly from a 3-5 mile radius and what was available for sale was banged up and in rough areas 

Outside of that there is lots of highrises in the development stage and with the city being so compact, property is becoming more and more scarce here.

I honestly can't believe anyone would walk off the stage with a $1,000 cash prize from a food bank.