All Forum Posts by: Austin F.

Personally I would stay really far away from words like "my rights, culpable, lawyer etc."

I would simply ask the supervisor what he would recommend to do, then listen to what he has to say.

Can you get the current work inspected and move on if it passes?

What happens if you want to just pay the fines? Will they make you tear it all out, or take the money and call it good.

Treat the guy across the table as your partner, he is the one who can fix your problem so be respectful and deferential and you just might get some good information and a bit of leeway.

I hate when I get this question because whatever answer you give is always followed by "must be nice".

I usually say "I'm in real estate" and try to change the subject. 

Go into it with your eyes open, and read about all the mistakes people make here and add to your systems to prevent those mistakes from happening to you.

Now as far as milestones that made my life easier there are a few that stick out, the majority of my renters are students so YMMV

-1 dwelling unit, one rent check no exceptions.

-E-payments, I do not accept paper money or direct transfers of any kind(in the early days Venmo, now a new system..)

-Docusign leases

-Stopped chasing the cheap handyfolk

-Innago or similar. I can screen tenants with a custom application, e sign a custom lease, accept deposits ACH'd to my account, and then accept rent payments ACH'd to my account. Also I can send bills and it automatically tacks on late fees and sends tenants reminders.

You won't regret passing on a tenant, but you WILL regret making an exception.

Treat tenants how you would want to be treated yourself no matter how frustrating they are, they are your customers. It may be your house, but it is their home.

Don't sweat the small stuff. This is a lot easier if your cash flow is good.

Be specific when dealing with tenants

If you have more specific questions myself or someone else can probably help

How would that save much of anything besides paper? Just as easy to drive over or mail with one page as it is with 11.

I switched to DocuSign a while back, and it was good for this. Send it over, everyone signs on the internet then the PDF version gets emailed to both parties after signing. It was $120 per year when I had it last. Now Innago has a similar feature for free.

Text back something to the tune of: "I expect you to vacate the unit by x:xxPM on April 1st Thank you."

No need to talk to him and open the door for negotiations or begin finger pointing about tree destruction, it will benefit no one. No need to discuss deposit returns either, you can send the required notification of his deposit deductions for the tree after he has left.

If an eviction is imminent now is a good time to read up on Chicago eviction law, it is very important you follow it exactly.

I reached out to my local county treasurer for a list of tax delinquent properties and got this email in reply:


"We can provide you with a list of properties with delinquent taxes, the cost if $0.50 per parcel per year. 2021 taxes will not be available until we complete our settlement process, which will take a couple more weeks at minimum."


My goal was to get a list of properties and spend some time sifting through it before the 2021 list came out. Then with some experience in analyzing the lists, get the '21 list and send out some mailers if I found anything interesting.


Now my question is: I'd prefer not to come off a fool to the assessor. What exactly would I be buying if I were to pay the $.50, is this going to forward my goal (with the end goal to find properties at below market value)? I am not too worried about the cost as long as I am moving towards my goal, also its a small county, so the list shouldn't be too long.

Whenever someone brings up Zestimate I ask "Isn't Zilliow the company that just lost 421 million dollars buying houses with that algorithm?"

I self manage, all tenants have my cellphone number.

I put my do not disturb on at night from 11p to 7a, phone is silent unless the same number calls twice in 15 minutes. In 8 years I haven't had anyone call overnight, let alone twice.

The only two things I would want to be woken up for is gushing water, or heat out during the winter. Anything else is 911's responsibility, or can wait for the morning.

As I scale I am starting to look for ways to segregate my personal number from the number tenants have. I haven't come up with a good way to do that yet.

What I would do in your situation is:

Buy first BRRR with your cash (with a finger out to the man), pay for your rehab with your cash, then place a tenant. After that's all done I would walk into the bank and show them what you did (before and after pics), how much it cash flows, appraised value etc. Then ask for a refi after showing you can do it.

Yes it will be slower to grow this way, but if you want to stick to your current plan then this is the only(?) way. Lenders will lend on rental income, but only if it is proven (A guy with 10 properties and 10 years experience will have a much easier time than someone trying to refi their first BRRR).

With the pile you have it sounds like you can do two of these deals concurrently that will speed things up. Walk in to a few banks, tell them what you want to do, and ask them what they would advise. I've found SOME bankers to be pretty helpful and even on the rare occasion able to think a little outside the box.

Wait 6 months and let the loan season and they will refi 80% of the ARV (assuming the ARV is the appraised value).