All Forum Posts by: Derek Walvoord

Welcome!  There are a ton of Chicago people on BP.  Feel free to reach out with any specifics. 

@Gilbert Dominguez

Welcome to Chicago.  I agree with the above folks, there are a ton of great groups and great investors to meet and chat with.  I invest on the south side of the City, but work all around the City and suburbs.  Feel free to connect!

I do southside, I'll send you a PM

If you have 300K, you should be able to purchase something.  It depends what you want to do.  Do you want to fix/flip, or be a landlord?  In my market, there are still houses in the 40-50K range that need some money to fix, but you could do a fix/flip for 100K or less.

If you have that kind of money, I bet you could do a commercial property in a less expensive market.  For commercial, they look more at the income of the property that at your personal income.  (at least some lenders do)

He needs to check with some good local lenders.  It sounds like he is talking to a normal banker at a big bank.  Check in with some other banks/mortgage brokers.

You could show her the comps, and ask her if that is her best price.  If it is, you probably don't have a deal.  If she realizes that she is way over market, then you might have something.

Good luck!

Hi, one of the things I like to use as a good cheat is the crime map on Trulia.  If you Google an address, you can find it on Trulia, and then there is a good color coded map of green = good to red = lots of crime.  I like South Chicago.  PM me if you are interested.

It is really a population issue.  Chicago's population is pretty steady, so the value in the real estate is pretty stable.  I think Detroit's population was cut in half from the 1950's, maybe even more.  Driving around there was like being on a ghost town set in a movie.  Sooner or later a municipality cannot pay for lights, road repair, even fire if there are not enough people paying into the system.  I think we will be fine in Chicago, but I do wish our politicians would get their act together. . .

I agree with @Ramon Jenkins, hard money, especially if you want no doc loans, will normally be pretty expensive.  If you think about it from the lender's point of view, for this short of a loan that is pretty risky, you need to make a pretty high return.  It is the old econ 101 rule of higher risk = higher return (or losing it all. . .).

I think that the 85% is actually pretty good.  Can you refinance your current property to get some equity out? Most people want you to have some skin in the game.