Real Estate Broker · Chicago, IL · Member since 2013 · 6k+ posts · 5k+ votes
Last week we hit our investment goal of $35k a month gross rental income. We bought our first investment property in August 2011 and the vast majority of our growth has happened in the past 10 months. We (my husband and I) now own 21 buildings and 59 units in Chicago and Milwaukee.
Life is still crazy, especially since we just got back from Mexico and are leaving for a two week trip to Europe this week… but I foresee a more steady and manageable pace moving forward.
It hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows. We have had our fair share of problems. Some buildings were an easy takeover where the tenants stayed, paid rent, and didn’t cause problems. Some we had tenants leave in the middle of the night or leave the place trashed. Some properties were profitable from day one and some won’t be profitable for at least a year. The good thing is because we have scale it all balances out and we are not putting our own money into them every month.
BP has been such a huge part of my success. I gained the confidence I needed to go into this full time and have met some amazing friends who have helped me so much along the way.
I am looking forward to this much needed vacation and returning in June fully recharged and ready to go!
@Derek Carroll- About half our portfolio is in Chicago with traditional residential financing. We were able to cash out on some of our appreciation to buy the rest with 80% LTV commercial loans. We borrowed $100k from my brother to push us past the goal line and now we will be pulling more equity out of Chicago to pay him back.
@Steve Perkins- It has been beyond my wildest dreams, I honestly barely recognize myself and didn't know I had it in me to do all this.
I'm sure you are using BP's guidelines about cash flow and you are careful about not pulling too much cash out on your appreciation. As with my business partner ventures, my own rental properties are never leveraged too the max even if the current net rental income can cover the new loan. One never knows what may occur to cause net rental income to suddenly drop for a while. So many "investors" do not consider that scenario as they were pulling cash out of all the built up equity. In almost 30 years of ups and downs of real estate I have not had any forced loss of real estate because all the loans were easily covered by even dropping rental income. Rental income does not always go up each year. Keep you wildest dreams from turning into nightmares.
@Brie Schmidt Very inspiring! Congrats. Do you remember your milestones at the end of each year such as how many properties/units you acquired owned at the end of each consecutive year? I am assuming it snowballed as you generated more income and could reinvest that buying more rapidly.
@Brie Schmidt this is so awesome! Congrats. Yours was one of the first podcasts that I listened to - it is way cool to see this happen for you and your husband!
@Brie Schmidt this is so awesome! Congrats. Yours was one of the first podcasts that I listened to - it is way cool to see this happen for you and your husband!
All the best!!
That's awesome! I has been such a crazy year since that one
Congrats and thanks for sharing! If my math is right, you've got 80 doors with an average rent of less than $450/mo? Curious if you are seeing better/easier tenant pools in Milwaukee v. Chicago? I'm in CA so those are some low rents. In my areas low rents come with low rent issues. I'm no stranger to low rent issues, but I define low rent as under $1000/mo. :)
I might have missed it, but how many of units have PM?
Again, congrats for setting and meeting those goals. Europe waits for you!
Congrats and thanks for sharing! If my math is right, you've got 80 doors with an average rent of less than $450/mo? Curious if you are seeing better/easier tenant pools in Milwaukee v. Chicago? I'm in CA so those are some low rents. In my areas low rents come with low rent issues. I'm no stranger to low rent issues, but I define low rent as under $1000/mo. :)
I might have missed it, but how many of units have PM?
Again, congrats for setting and meeting those goals. Europe waits for you!
We have 59 doors total. But 4 units are not currently rented out (2 we live in and 2 are under construction) Chicago is about $1300 a unit and tenants are much easier to deal with (I manage these). Milwaukee is about $600 a unit (about $650 a unit when I get done with increases) and it has it's set of challenges. Those properties are run by my full time in house PM.
It is not easy, and we do have challenges for sure. But having an in house PM makes a world of difference. especially since we bought 13 properties from 10 sellers in 5 months, it takes time to transition people over to our way of doing things.
@Ann Howell Thanks! I am always adjusting our goals but I had to promise the hubby we would take a break at some point and this was the one we decided on.
@John Casmon Thanks. It has been awhile since I have seen you around!
@Mindy Jensen - I am on the North Side of Chicago and that is where I operate my brokerage business too