All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

What Jennifer said. Get it under contract, and use your 5 day (or whatever it is in your state) inspection contingency to get a detailed SOW/budget with your GC. If the numbers don’t work, pull out of the contract.

Tom Scannell at Scannell Law in Chicago.

Did you pay him beyond the work that he has completed so far?

I'm in the same situation in Chicago. Do you have signed lien waivers for each payment? I do, and I'm hoping that protects me against the contractor filing a lien, or getting anywhere with it. I'm talking to my lawyer tomorrow.

I have a good tile guy out there - PM me. The hardest part of rehabs in that area is finding contractors that aren't booked solid and aren't completely crazy.

@Diane G.

What neighborhood?

Those DuPage county stats are for the last decade. A lot of home values peaked in 2007, tanked in 08/09 and then have slowly crawled back up for the last 7-8 years. This was the case in most of Chicagoland. The actual recent stats (from the link in that article) are:

• With an average sale price of $321,895 for the six month period ending in November 2016, DuPage County homes have the highest average sale price of all counties in Illinois.

• Home values in DuPage County are expected to grow at 4.30%, which is on par with the rest of the counties in Illinois, where prices are expected to rise 3.95% on average.

These kind of statistics, looked at in a bubble, with arbitrary time frames, are kind of meaningless. 

$7195, 4BR, 1800sf condo with 4 tenants. San Francisco of course. 

@Albert W.

Congrats on completing a flip and earning (even a small) profit in a very challenging area. Just curious why the realtor costs and closing costs on sale are so high, at 12k each. Even if you're paying 5% commission on a sale of 215k, that's less than 12k. FYI, Redfin sale commissions are now 3.5% in Chicagoland, but they may not serve Englewood.

@Todd Michaels

I believe it was Lowe's - will check with my contractor. 12k for a 1.5 story SFH.

Originally posted by @Todd Michaels:

We are looking to replace the vinyl siding on our 3-story 2 flat in Chicago and have gotten it down to between Hardiplank or vinyl, waiting on getting quotes back now.

 I just replaced all the siding on a flip in Chicago. Hardie was only about 2k more than vinyl for a 2800sf house, so well worth it in my opinion.