All Forum Posts by: Henry Lazerow

Focus on 3/4 units buildings instead! For a single family/condo it can forsure be a few years before actually in the green. Atleast in my market chicago north side you cashflow day 1 if buy a 3/4 unit at 25 down. I would never buy anything that didn't cashflow day 1 way too much risk of taxes going up, rents going down, etc. that can get you in trouble if that negative cashflow spread widens.

I do wonder what would happen to housing if Gavin Newsom won presidency 2028, could he implement similar laws California housing has for rest of US or do state laws override federal for things like rent control, etc.? I know IL state has laws against rent control which has prevented Chicago from implementing it. 

Don't buy properties in working class areas. Stick to class A/B and you will stop having these costly tenant issues. I haven't and been investing 8 years. I self manage and all my northside Chicago clients also have never had to do a single eviction either. It can happen but should be extreamly rare if your in a good area and do even basic qualifications. 

I also own a C class building in suburbs and it has an eviction or tenant leave before an eviction almost every year. It all depends on the area. 

Looking for any referrals for an insurance agent for a 4 unit property where one units is an airbnb. Please PM me. Thanks! 

A lot of these PM's don't even answer the emails prospects send. Switch management companies or find a good realtor and hire them direct to handle the leasing. A unit should never sit on market more then 2-3 weeks if it's priced right. 

When you sign the list docs you agree with seller in advance how much sellers agent and buyers agent collect. Regardless, I don't know any buyers agent who will try to squeeze their client for a higher offer due to higher co-op that would be extreamly unethical. Typically atleast in IL 2.5% is the co-op and on rare occasions seller offers less so the buyer just offers a little lower and pays the remaining portion themselves at closing, it ends up netting out the same.

Never pay for a mentorship. Real estate is not a get rich quick anymore. 10 years ago you could easily scale fast with little money, so even if the mentor did it does not mean its repeatable in 2025. Just go to meetups and meet people who you can become friends wth to bounce ideas off. For fimding deals find a good investor friendly realtor (lots on this site). I usually recomend people new to real estate house hack by finding a 2-4 unit buying low down and living in it for a year or so and then repeat into another one (this is how I personally got started).

It doesn't matter if it's a protected class. The city your in can still sue you as well as the tenants if they hire a tenant rights lawyer. Bad idea and I do not even see any correlation between political views and rent payment rates. The only correlations are credit/landlord referances, even if they are politically anti-landlord tenants with 700+ scores don't want to hurt those scores by not paying or causing problems. I could care less what political party tenants are in.

Lucky you! HELOC is expensive debt and only for short term uses like funding a flip/brrr project. Just sell the house and buy something cheaper, you can invest the rest of the money in stocks/real estate. DSCR loans for 25 down investment properties if have no w2. You can also look at selling to buy a 3 or 4 unit and live in one unit for free (I currently do this in a 4 unit).

Money market. 0 risk of loss and pays over 4%. I always keep some in there and rest in stock indexes. Have a heloc too for if stocks way down and I don’t want to withdrawal.