All Forum Posts by: Justin Poulsen

@Brie Schmidt - Zero rehab experience.  But having worked for a construction company in college I like the idea of a complete clean slate.   But to do that much work I wouldn't want to pay 200+ thousand for an empty shell. 

My wife was happy to hear I wasn't pursuing it. 

@Brie Schmidt - I was planning on seeing it tomorrow morning.  My real estate agent had major concerns about going in the building.  He seemed to think the threat of death was real.  Today I saw that the status changed to contingent.  With that I'm gonna skip this one.

@brie Schmidt - That's the one.  Listed at 200k.  Sold in 08 for 400k.  I don't think I'm very interested but that price seems good for the neighborhood.  Depending on how extensive the rehab would be????

I saw a listing for a property in my local area (north side Chicago).  It is bank owned, I contacted my real estate agent to arrange to check it out.  They sent him this waiver to sign before we would be allowed to enter the property.  

The property "presents a risk of personal injury or death".  Is this standard legal CYA? Or is this something specific to a terrible property?

With bank owned properties that are in bad condition, as I believe this one is, do they typically consider offers below asking price?  

I also have a brick 2 flat in Chicago.  I got a quote for 60k to do a similar build out.  30K of that was for waterproofing and plumbing.  We have no rough ins for plumbing and when we get heavy rains I get a few inches of water in the basement.  

Before spending that kind of money you should check your zoning.  Most 2 flats are soned for only 2 residences and adding a 3rd would require upzoning.  From what I have heard that is hard to get the city to sign off on.

Good luck and definitely post your results if you do go through with the project.

I would check with your accountant to know for sure, but I will give you my take.

I am in a similar situation.  I live in a duplex and rent out the 2nd unit.  After deducting the expenses (including mortgage interest, taxes, insurance, and utilities) from the revenue I had almost no income.  Then you can deduct appreciation, which in my case was around $16000.  

So there is potentially a huge tax write off you are missing out on.

Strainght from the IRS http://www.irs.gov/publications/p527/ch02.html