2153 W. 21st Place - My First Property

I've had the idea to keep a blog about my foray into the wacky world of real estate for awhile, and thanks to a relatively light work schedule I've finally gotten around to starting it today!  I wish I had started this back in late January when I was VERY new to the whole thing, but better late than never I suppose.

A bit about myself and my goals: I'm a 23 year old graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Masters of Accounting Science currently working in the advisory/consulting arm of one of the Big 4 accounting firms in Chicago.  I first started thinking about real estate back in late 2016 when I was travelling a lot for work and found myself paying for rent and utilities for an apartment that I wasn't even living in.  It helped me realize that if I was going to be paying that much per month, I'd much rather have it going towards a mortgage instead of a landlord.  Fast forward to January 2017, I began listening to BiggerPockets and discovered what members here refer to as "house hacking".  If you don't know what that is, it's basically purchasing a property and living in it yourself while also renting out a portion of it.  The idea is for the monthly rental income to be equal to or greater than the monthly mortgage payment, allowing the owner to essentially live for free while building equity in the property.

After doing some research and posting a few times in the BP forums, I was referred to Brie Schmidt (who has been a guest on 2 BP podcasts!).  Brie is a licensed real estate agent who is also a very experienced investor with regards to high-end multifamily properties in the city of Chicago - in other words, she was the perfect person for me to be talking to.  She has taught (and is continuing to teach) me a LOT about real estate and I have been working with her and her team (Sam Sharp - Lender, George Foster - Inspector, Ben Wong - Attorney) pretty much since the beginning of my journey.

A few weeks ago, I saw this gem of a property pop up on Redfin and was immediately drawn to it.  It was in a rapidly gentrifying area (Pilsen), beautifully rehabbed, and met my minimum requirement of 3 income-producing units.  After running the numbers and realizing that this was an incredible property that fit pretty much all of my needs and wants, I decided that this was going to be the one - I submitted $30k over the list price in a highest & best situation and am now currently under contract for my very first rental property!  Closing is set for the end of the month (5/31) and we just completed the inspection yesterday afternoon.  I'm currently waiting on George's report, which I'll be discussing with Brie sometime this afternoon before we go to negotiate with the seller.  In the meantime, I've started looking for 1-2 roommates to live with me in the owner's unit to bring in some additional income (and make it not so lonely...)

Anyways, I think that's enough writing for a first post.  My intention is to keep this blog updated each step of the way from here on out, so hopefully they'll be a bit shorter going forward.  Thanks for reading!