All Forum Posts by: Henry Lazerow

It was closer to North Lawndale side, near the Shameless TV show house actually! 

It was Town Center Bank. I heard good things about Lakeside Bank though! 

It depends where you are. In Chicago there’s thousands of in-law un-permitted units and no one really cares, they are actually very desirable for house hackers. 

Before:

After: 

When we bought the building, it had a tenant who needed to be evicted with big nasty dogs. We ended up paying him $2500 to leave, as did not want to wait the whole 8 months for an eviction.

Purchase: $135k

Sold: $450k. Original expected ARV was $400k. Redfin has Little Village growth at 10.6% in last 12 months so we got lucky on that end and our ARV was very accurate prior to the last 12 months of appreciation. Ran MLS comps to determine.

Rehab costs: Prefer not to share on a public forum.

Financing: Did a 25% down rehab loan that was at 9% and 2.5 points from a local bank. I also used my HELOC from another property for most of the downpayment so really did the deal with close to $0 out of pocket. My heloc is at 8.5%.

Scope of rehab: Kitchens/baths/flooring/paint. The basics to make it nice and rent ready, kept unit layouts the same. Some new windows, gutters, new garage door, motor, etc. Everything was beat up from decades of being a rental prior. 

We rented the 3/1 garden unit for $1720. I have the top unit 3/2 as a rental listing now from the new owner and have had a ton of inquiries 30+ for $2250. Rents in Little Village have gone WAY up especially if you do a nice rehab. A few years ago I would never of imagined 2 units at nearly half a million and demand for rentals going over $2000+ in Little Village. Probably will be over $500k next year, Brighton Park 2 units (neighborhood next over) are already now breaking $500k mark. The whole SW side is gentrifying rapidly. Looking at a 6 unit in area now for the my next one, this one a BRRR to hold onto long term.

A roof deck will forsure boost the value of your condo! Maybe look at doing a smaller deck as long as checks the box of roof deck will boost value! As Jonathan says 1600 sqft is huge and will cost $$$. 

Theres more people who can afford homes then homes for sale (atleast here in Chicago) and those looking can afford to go well over ask. Just did one $150k over and $15k over in last 2 months. If theres only enough houses for X% of the population all that really matters is if that X% can afford it, not the general population. Construction costs are so high, it's not possible to add affordable inventory and with 30 year fixed non-callable and well underwritten mortgages I don't see many being forced to sell. 08 was unique in that the mortgages were not well underwritten and people were forced to sell.

Any recommendations for investor friendly lenders licensed in IL? Looking to see best rate for me on Conventional mortgages. My tax return is pretty complex as I also do flips with a LLC that showed a loss but recently flipped the property so LLC only holds one high cash flowing property now and am a real estate professional writing off depreciation. Please PM me. Have been pre approved conventional one lender and recently did a refi so know I qualify.

You make a great point but the bottom line is trump is only in office until 2029. These exact tariff policies will NOT be long term after 2029, who knows if they will even stay for his whole term. Moving supply chains is not quick. 

I had a client buy a 14 unit in Rogers Park chicago for 1.6 million using his SBLOC it's like a HELOC on a brokerage account and has set rules for equity so don't need to worry about changes to parameters for a margin call, I would still be very conservative on the % of account you withdraw. This was back in 2019 and that building is now worth around 2.6 million so worked out well for him!

@Travis Timmons I don't believe this is true. Take my market for example north side Chicago. A 4 unit goes $800-1m that rents for $7500-8800 this is with class A tenants that run under 3% vacancy over time (you do need boost rents to market value after acquisition). At 25% down you are most definitely cashflowing positive, it won't be the crazy high 0% down returns of years ago but they cashflow a stable nice income that goes up each year. Most people self manage these as they are class A tenants, even doable for out of state owners with a leasing agent. I own a 4 there myself.

If something is selling at a higher rent percent then rest of market it means it’s in a bad area and as mentioned above likely won’t perform how you think it will. Just focus on value add deals in good areas and be patient as watch them grow long term. 

P.S investor friendly doesn’t matter if you buy in a good high demand area where won’t have any tenant issues. Yes investor friendly areas if need evict it’s quick but the tenants damage your  place and it costs you a lot of money in turnover. Not the magic pill many on this site preach for high cash flow low class investor friendly areas.