All Forum Posts by: Aaron Zimmerman

Seems like a great deal to get your feet wet. Do you think you'll be able to refinance with the amount of improvements you're making?

I live in an expensive market and I'd say house hacking is the way. You get landlording experience, maximizing leverage, and ideal reducing your housing expenses. You would need to make sure the investment cash flows or at least breaks even post move out and reduces your housing expenses while living there.

This is a fantastic deal. Congratulations! Have you considered doing short term rental with the other unit?

Mario - welcome to the forums! Thanks for posting. There's a lot of local meetups you could join. I like the Chicago multifamily club, any NBOA event, and Windy City REI. There are many other great events as well.

I'd also listen to the straight up Chicago investor podcast if you haven't already as there's a lot of great content there. 

@Mario Morales - was the water bill actual or estimated? If estimated, you can call the city out there and get an actual reading on a water meter

very nice breakdown of the Chicago market as well as the class a vs class c buildings performance over time with real portfolio data. I will be doing a similar analysis with my portfolio as I have a class c+ 5 unit and class B+ 4 unit. I completely agree on the return on hassle being a factor as well as insurance.

@George Skidis sorry to hear your experience dealing with some municipalities. The suburbs are very local too and there's a lot of rules to be aware with each village/township. 

@John Clark thank you for sharing the resource. I did not intentionally try to mislead anyone. I also don't have anything to sell that is transactional and benefits off anyone purchasing real estate in Chicago.

As someone that lives in Chicago and sees things on a day to day basis, some areas may be experiencing population decline within the city. However, if you've been to many north side neighborhoods, there's literal bidding wars over rent because the areas are so desirable. 

The debt is absolutely a concern as well as the local politics. It is Crucial to understand the dynamics of the city as this can affect your investment. If property taxes do go up, which they likely will, the noi will be less. I would say an offsetting factor to this is Chicago is not building nearly enough housing for its population which puts pressure on rents increasing. If there's one thing I'm not concerned about is rents increasing in Chicago, especially over an extended period of time. I'm not saying it'll be the best market, but there are a lot of pros with Chicago. And to your point about the water in the southwest, you are correct. Chicago will never run out of water in our lifetimes. 

The overall objective with the house hack is to lower your housing expense while you're there AND cash flow flow after all expenses upon moveout. You can use cash on cash return as well as total return. Once you move out, you can use return on equity. 

@Sireno Mattie try to come to each event to learn something and meet people. Try to ask as many questions of the other person as possible to learn about their journey. If you're looking for a mentor, be as helpful as possible!