All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Looking for a realtor who i can work with in the southwest burbs of Chicago. Who knows Evergreen park, Oak lawn and Hometown. Willing to give me honest feedback about properties on the buy and sell side. Look forward to hearing from you. Thanks

Yes. Absolutely. Finding houses that need updating is easy. Finding those that need updating and you can make money on is a real challenge.  I would also add the cost of health insurance. Closing costs and getting financing are all at the top of the list. 

I did it for about 10 years. Every year the premium went up anywhere from 10-16 percent. I just hate giving insurance companies my hard earned money.  It's unsustainable to have that type of increase every year.

Wondering what people who don't have the benefit of having a spouse's employer sponsored insurance do for health insurance?

This is a huge cost that goes up every year. 

I would love to rehab full time again but the cost of health insurance is a big issue.

Any thoughts

Very few people have all the skills required to do a full rehab. Yes, everyone can learn to clean and paint walls but that is not what is required when you buy a discounted distressed property. 

You really don't have a choice but to sub the work out.

That's an interesting article. Those are not the areas I would have guessed. I was thinking they would all be on the northside as that is were all the money is!

Here in the Chicago area it is really hard to find properties you can make a decent profit on. When they do come on the market there is a ton of competition for them and sometimes there getting bid up. Seems people are buying and flipping without making much money?

Hiring and dealing with contractors seems to be one of the top issues on BP for rehabbers.

I will share some thoughts from both sides as i am a rehabber who was also a contractor and who still does some extra work when i have time.

Rehabbers and contractors or handymen or whoever you are hiring to work on your projects have conflicting priorities.  Let's face it,the rehabber wants to get the best quality work done at the lowest price. The guy doing the work is trying to make the most possible money doing the least amount of work.

Being a residential contractor in anything. Be it plumbing,painting,drywalling or whatever is a tough business. If you do it legally and get all the insurance and pay all the taxes that you are supposed to ,you are then up against the people in the industry who don't, and there are a fair amount of those. This  gives the under the radar bunch a competitive advantage in a market that almost completely driven by price.

Rehabbers on the other hand are trying to keep costs as low as possible because it is already hard finding properties at the price point were you can make any money when adding in Realtor and closing fees which generally add 8-10percent to the equation.

Would love to here others opinions on the topic.

Thanks and have a great day.

Dale 

You could not be more correct in you thoughts.  If someone did indeed have some great system to make tons of money, why would they want to share it?

The houses in this neighborhood originally had the w/d in the kitchen, so it's not all that unusual of a set up.  This is also a pretty low end market and not many nicely remodeled homes to choose from.