All Forum Posts by: Frank S.

Howdy,

Tenants thew a party, bought furniture, and now are a little short on cash, go figure.

I am double checking a few things, can a Chicago expert please confirm this information?

2017 Chicago Residential Lease

5. Late Fee. The Monthly Rent shall be automatically increased $10, plus 5% of the amount by which the Monthly Rent exceeds $500, as additional rent, if received by Landlord after the 5th of the month for which it is due.

Per this, I can collect  a late fee AFTER the 5th and the late fee is the same the same no matter if they made a partial payment.  Can you confirm, please? 

E.g., $1,325 per month, fee is $51.25.

LANDLORD REMEDIES {MUN. CODE CH. 5-12-130}

I read elsewhere that if you accept a partial payment, you should send another 5 day for the amount due.  Otherwise, this is case will be thrown out in court in Chicago.  So, if  I send a 5 day on day 3 and then they don't pay after day 6, I would have to send another 5 day to include the late fee?  

 Thanks, 

Frank

At least one store could custom make the floor, 2" wide by 1" thick.  The cost was about $6 per linear foot, give or take $40 total in flooring for my purposes.   

The floor guy indicated older maple has typically yellow hues while the new growth is whiter.   Being a rental, I don't mind in the short term, but I would like to get this done right in case I sell years from now, you never know. 

At the "demolished wall areas, we will install the floor perpendicularly.  It would be too much to redo the area. At the kitchen, we will patch accordingly and may use floor hardener. 

Before Pictures Below

(Crocks are used for scale, don't use crocks at job-sites, BTW.) 

Damaged caused by floor mounted water heater.  Heater has been relocated to mech. room.   Note 2 1/4" maple next above.

Demolished wall and extended bedroom

Demolished wall to build small closet

After pics at some point...

Sample of floors upstairs. They will be nice.

Thanks for the references and feedback.  If I don't find the right material, we will remove the floor below the kitchen cabinets. I only need 5 - 7 S.F. to to repair water damage.  This is good wood, 2" wide, 1" thick, and after sanding it will look amazing.  The second floor has the same floors and it turned out great.

It's something to keep in mind for the next rehab.

Unfortunately, this is for  2" wide floors.

It's a rental.   However, it's hard to believe this size is no longer available. 

At my rental, I have 2"maple floors. This size is uncommon and not available at retail houses.  I even called all reuse building materials in the Chicago area and couldn't find it.

Any tips?  I could modify the wood on a table saw, but that's labor intensive. 

Thanks!

If you have your 6/8 month cash for emergencies set aside,  your investments are running like well oiled machine, and still have some spare cash,  go talk to a fee only fiduciary financial adviser. 

Checking accounts returns are offensive, try online banks at 1.0% savings.   It's hard to find a good place to park hard cold cash to fight inflation. It's a good problem to have.

No.  Bonds are there per your risk tolerance and asset allocation. The example was to illustrate that it doesn't matter to wait to buy cheap, not that you should wait to buy cheap. 

If I can follow your message, it seems you don't have any bonds and you would like to proceed with CDs instead.  If that is the case, CDs will lock your money for a particular time.  This may not allow you to balance your position, if needed.  You could be cash heavy until your CD term expires. Now, for the long term, you may be better served by investing in tax deferred accounts, or a Roth, because CDs will be taxed at interest income, not a lower capital gains.   You should compare both options.  

Note that your position of notes changes over time.  As you age, you will increase your bonds according to your risk tolerance.  As your wealth increases, you may choose to take less risk.  

Here is a good book:  A Random Walk Down Wall Street.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/review-a-random-wal...

Quickly and regain are not terms that should be applied to equities. This shouldn't be applied to wealth building, either. Market timing will hurt you.

In a crash, you will always have money to buy low.  Here is a broad example. 

$10 invested, 40 y/o male with low risk tolerance should have $4 bonds / $6 equities ( 40%/60% asset allocation).

Assume a market crash at 20%, equities value goes down to $4.8, bonds remain strong. Your position is  $4 bonds and $4.8 equities ( $8.8 total).  Then, you rebalance ( should always revalance when exceeding 5% of your position) according to your asset allocation and buy equities buy selling bonds. Your new position would be $3.52 vs $5.28 and you ride the Black Swan.  Here, you bought $0.48 in equities at a discount. If you feel courageous, sell more bonds, but  then, why did you have such a conservative stance to begin with?  Will you be able to sleep if you loose another 15%?

Your asset allocation will provide you better returns than market timing. Stick to the plan and execute,  forget about market timing. 

You only  have three options: continue to grow, crash, or stay the same.  This is absolutely unpredictable.  

Recall the market tends to grow over time (we hope!).  What are your long term goals?  Long term is at least 10 years. 

What would happen to your cash if you wait 5, 10, 15, 30 years?  Look at inflation! What opportunities of growth will you miss while waiting? How long can you wait in the sidelines?

Will the market crash?  Sure, at one point, when?  Don't listen to the financial porn. 

Now, the questions to answer are:

What's your asset allocation?

What's your tolerance for risk?  

Any money invested in stocks (Yes, index funds only) should be there for at least 10 years J.C. Bogle reference above is great, look at Bogleheads, and Malkiel. 

Recall that experts have predicted 9 out of the last 5 stock market crashes. 

Good luck, 

Frank