All Forum Posts by: Joe Cantanzriti

Kyle Hansen In the nicer areas of Chicago you probably won’t have a difficult time with vacancy necessarily but you may have a problem with tenants staying there for more than a year, seems like the lack of sunlight is what does it. You’ll certainly be 10-20% less in rental income vs the same unit one floor above you, which is also why the price tag is likely 10-20% less. Save up a couple more bucks and hold out for the more desirable unit, you’ll benefit in the long run and have longer terms tenants.

Byron W. Depends a little bit on the building layout and where the furnaces are located but we’ve been paying around $1800-$2000 per condenser for most properties. You may have some longer runs if your units are stacked and you have a furnace on the 2nd and 3rd floor but you shouldn’t be too far out of the $2500 per unit range even with the longer runs from furnace to condenser.

Adam Sherritt Agreed on what April Chim said. This is the exact way I built a multi-family database in Ohio. Through the MLS you have access to Realist.com which pretty easily gets you a list of what your looking for. Now of course it’s not a complete list and some of the data isn’t completely correct but it’s a great start and you can add and edit from there since it gives you the option to export to excel. A local agent should be able to get this for you in minutes.

Inga C. I had this same situation last year when my fiancé got a job offer here in Chicago. We ended up renting and actually decided to keep renting here in Chicago and buy more where our other rentals are in Ohio. I’m not sure if you have rentals elsewhere but we couldn’t justify buying here and ending up with a rental condo since we really didn’t know if we were here for the long term or not. Also the Chicago market is hot especially since it sounds like you’re not looking to move to the burbs and end up with what would likely be a better rental property when you moved. Love to hear from someone who is buying rentals now in the hot areas of the city and making the numbers work. Of course there are always deals and opportunities but certainly tricky to find in the popular neighborhoods here.

Agreed with Chad Nagel Looks like from what you posted that this place loses money, quite a bit of money actually with the scenario that you presented. Didn't run the numbers further than noticing that but maybe if you put a down payment into this and really dig into the numbers it could have some chance of being a project worth pursuing, not sure though. The assumable loans might be a deal killer on this one just because of the high payments.

Welcome Katie Askew , looking forward to the next BP books as always! I could probably write a book about selecting the wrong tenants which would probably be more of a comedy than anything else.

It goes back to the good old tenant screening process. Even though your tenant pool may be government subsidized, there are plenty of excellent tenants who are on section 8 for many different reasons who would be great tenants as long as you as the landlord hold up your end of the deal. Keep the property as nice as you would any other property and you may be surprised with the respect that tenants will give in return. Many section 8 tenants can be 10+ year tenants if treated well and if vetted correctly on the front end. Patience is the key here, might be 50 applications and interviews you go through before finding a viable tenant but it'll be worth it.

@Nick Schenkel I just made a similar move myself at the end of last year from Youngstown Ohio to Chicago.... certainly a sharp cost of living increase. We ended up in Lakeview on the north side of the city which is certainly not the cheapest area but with some dedication and patience in your search you can find a decently priced place for a rental and the area is fantastic as far as the social scene goes. Finding a duplex to buy around here may be a bit more difficult, the area is booming so prices are pretty high compared to the rents in my opinion. Also Bucktown, Wicker Park, & West Town seem to be pretty popular options for the social aspects, lots of 20s & 30s everywhere in all of these areas. I'm sure there are many other neighborhoods that are great as well, that's just been my experience thus far here.

All great advice above, to really answer the price question, can you post the 3 SOLD comps that you are basing the ARV off of. That may make this all much more clear. Active comps aren't really relevant since they're not sold yet.

My vote is ROI for sure, keep it simple.