@Joe Splitrock
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. This is a monster of a response since i wanted to be able explain the thought process i have a little clearer after you asking how i came up with my numbers so thank you again for making get more detailed in my plan or at least to have it typed up.
1.) Section 8 in illinois can get a lot of people in trouble since there are pros and cons to working with section 8. major gray area here in what counts as discrimination towards them since they are a protected class in illinois and if i went out and said no section 8 or told all section 8 people i don't accept them i would be sued.
2.) I personally feel that $50 is to high for the checks since i know they only cost about $35 to run both and just seems like a ripoff to make money off of a cost of doing business. so i'm going to just charge what the cost of running the checks.
3.) allowing pets i agree with charging an extra pet rent but what would be a fair rent increase for that? places in chicago sometime raise the rent by $50 up $100 a month which sounds like robbery to me.
4.) I agree with modifying an existing lease from somebody who has one already to match what i want to be included as i am sure it will save a lot of time and money when using a real estate attorney starting with a base lease.
5.) Thank you for sharing a personal lesson you have learned. while i do have aggressive number in terms of units and the time frame to do it, the real heavy lifting won't happen until about year 4 or 5 and then up from there. plus the first building ill have will be 4 units but i will live in one so will only have to take care of 3 units.
Some Disclaimers:
1.) I'll have my real estate license( should be taking the test in two weeks from now) so that will save me 3% when i sell greatly helping my ability to invest faster with that money saved.
2.) Have been leasing apartments for the last two years in chicago so i have a really good understanding of what apartments will rent for and how to make sure they get rented.
3.) While i may have only worked at a property management company for about 6 months i'm a very fast learner and picked up a ton of things while i was there.
4.) Studying how to run a buisness for about 4 years now and have been applying it the last two years doing real estate full time this has been the most educating time of my entire life because if i don't produce results i don't eat. While i have been going to school for business admin for a little over a year and will be done in about 16 weeks with an associate's degree the only real thing i have gained was a better understanding of how accounting works since i have 6 months straight of account classes.
5.) Ridiculous attention to details when it comes to planning, now if only my grammar was that why haha.
I got such a large number for the number of rental units because, while there is nothing wrong with saying my goal is to have 75,100,150,200 etc..... it's still a very small number which doesn't make me want to get up in the morning to make it happen and it makes me feel like oh i have all this time to get 200 units in 13 years. The bigger goals require you to think smarter, think more accurately, and build systems that can automate your business wherever possible to be able to reach them.
If you plan right i don't see why can't anybody do this within 5-7 years by trading up to bigger properties using a 1031 exchange.
So while 1000 units is really high even if i were only hit half of that number i wouldn't be upset with 500 but i will be with only like 25-100 units in that time frame. why think small when you can think big and even if you miss will still be way better off working towards the larger goal. Small dreams/goals have no magic.
I do have it broken down year by year of how many units to acquire while the first 3-4 years maybe slow in terms of number of unit it will increase much faster once i can get things set up to basically fire myself from day to day tasks that take up so much time and just focus on finding deals, forced appreciation to increase overall value and equity in the building preparing a build to refinancing it, and trading up when the time is right to move on to a bigger property.
For example:
Year 1 : one 4 unit building possibly two (both will be creative financing deals) depending on when and how well i get the first one all set up, live in one to reduce living expenses, create a effective management plan that will serve as the foundation for all my other building in the future( working on right now as we speak mostly all theory i'm putting together now because i know the real learning wont start until after i become a landlord), build up my real estate team (which i have gotten a great head start on this year already and have a couple of them in place already)
After year 1: 4-8 units
Year 2: Continue to improve my landlord business and start to see where i can start to remove some time consuming tasks. Look into how i can increase rents by providing better services and amenities. Use my VA loan to find another 4 unit building and live in that new building and repeat the improvement process over the next two years.
after year 2: 8-12 units
Year 3: refinance on the two seller financing deals and pull out equity that i have built into them, if this doesn't work then i will trade up using a 1031 exchange to one bigger building the unit amount will depend on the sales price of the two buildings.
after year 3: 20-40 units
The number goal i have is $100,000 rental income a month. the prices for apartments in chicago are pretty high so i very well could reach the money amount before the number of units.