Deal Diary: Chicago north side 4 unit with 100% return on capital day one

[Henry Lazerow]

I was the buyers agent on this deal. It was listed at $900,000 and all of the current rents were roughly 30% below market rate rental comps we ran for the direct area so we saw nice upside. Sales comps also put the building closer to 1 to 1.1 million for similar brick legal 4 units. So when sellers called best and highest we advised our buyer to go well over ask at $945,000 and to use strong terms such as AS-IS and a 1 month close. We won and the property ended up appraising out at $1,000,000 creating $55,000 of positive equity at close. The client was house hacking and only put 5% down so this created a 100% return on his 5% of cash invested in the deal.

Goes to show you do not always need to get the price down to get a good deal and the value of having an agent who knows the local multi unit market that can advise you on your offers. This will be the clients second house hack. The last purchase was several years ago also on the northside and bought 5% down which has multiplied the downpayment many times over in total return. I bought my own 4 unit house hack 5% down also. It is what I recommend most of my clients for the highest total returns. It is a bit harder to do it on 2 units now a days but the 4 units you can still get the rents high enough to make the numbers work after you move out. 

[Nicholas L.]

@Henry Lazerow

nice.  going to save this and make it my response the next time someone in Chicago says they have $50K and should they buy a random property in IN