Just a Chicago girl, living in a complex RE world

[Chelsea Pfeiffer]

…she took the CTA goin’ anywhere.

Alright, so maybe it’s not that complex. It’s just because I’m a novice to everything real estate.

Anyways…

Hello, everyone! I’m Chelsea Pfeiffer. A little over a year ago I attended a meet-up that went over the ins and outs of house hacking and I liked the idea, but have kept it on the back burner for some time until now.

Some background info about myself is that I’m a nurse in Chicago. One benefit of working at the place I’m at is that our overtime can be paid out in vacation hours instead of being paid out in cash (example: 4 hours overtime=6 hours vacation time). So, with COVID there was more than the usual overtime available. I achieved the maximum number of hours for that particular benefit and since mid-September am now am taking 4 hour vacations each week. As a result, I’m only working three, 12’s per week to maintain the 40 hour work week full-time status until further notice.

I love being a nurse, so I needed to get creative with that benefit I had available to try and balance my career with the up and coming passion that I’m developing for real estate so as to not get burnt out.

I’m currently doing my best to educate myself about real estate by listening to podcasts, reading books, exploring BiggerPockets, etc. However, there’s a point where I’ll need to just do it and I learn best by doing just that. My bf and I plan to begin the pre-approval process by the end of February, so until then I will do what I can do to become more knowledgeable on the topic. We’ve at least settled on a broker for the purchase: Second City Real Estate-Brie Schmidt.

Since I learn best by being hands-on, I would initially like to be my own property manager for the first property or two. As my portfolio expands, and I say “my” since my bf isn’t as interested in real estate as me and will stop investing after the first property, then I will be looking for trustworthy property managers to assist me with managing my buy and hold multi-family unit approach.

With that said, I want to surround myself with people who have done what I plan to do and are willing to provide insight, shadowing, recommendations, and/or meet with me over coffee (on me! And COVID permitting), so I can be the best and most educated first-time real estate investor I can be.

Cheers,

Chels