All Forum Posts by: Jeff Valentino

welcome to BP @Nicole Weber, you've found a great resource here!

I host the meetup in Orland Park-we were meeting at Champs but they closed, so I will have a new spot for October. You can join the group on meetup here or I also post them on the events section on BP.

Talk to you soon!

Jeff

Hey @Nick LePore . I memorize 2 yrs worth of stats for every suburb and Chicagoland in general. JK! I got them off the MLS. :)

Welcome to BP @Nick LePore !

There is lots of good info here, so soak it up.

To answer your question, the market has been strong this year in Chicagoland. Sometimes there is a slow down in winter but earlier this year Chicagoland as a whole saw # of transactions climb each month From Jan-July where we saw a summer slow down. Between July 2015 and and Feb 2016 Homewood saw between 340 and 353 closed sales per month. Pretty steady. 

Homewood as a whole has slowed from that pace a bit, but I still see well marketed homes that are priced right move quickly. All that being said I would plan for a little extra holding costs and a little longer time on market to be safe. 

Hope that helps!

The positive thing is that the owner likely knows they have an odd layout too. That should make your conversation easier when you comp it as a 1br.

I say 1br because there is likely going to be an issue exiting regardless of what your investment strategy is. You need to price in some of that risk/hassle.

Good luck!

Hey there @Michael Prim. You can offer whatever you want but it would be wise to find out what % to list similar properties are selling for and take it from there. Time on market, price reductions, condition etc can also be good indication of the sellers motivation or lack thereof.

Rental demand is still high, so I think it is good to project future rents. If it is in an area w good schools and safe neighborhoods especially.

Good luck!

Thanks @John Meyers but I'm not interested in doing valuation leads for this. The wholesale business would be totally separate from my "retail" real estate biz.

Thanks for the reply though!

Thanks @Michelle DeWoskin I haven't done much mailing at all, so the whole thing will be a learning experience. 

I'm getting a wholesale marketing plan together and often hear people say that absentee owner lists get better results than owner occupied even thought there is more competition. 

Can anyone say how much better? The reason I am asking is that a list I am looking at for Chicago suburbs has almost no absentee owners vs owner occupied. I'd like to get a better idea of things before committing to a multi month campaign.

Thanks!

I don't work much in the city but keep an eye on it for some clients. I also typically recommend first time investors stay out of the city for reasons mentioned above unless they really know what they are getting into. My rentals are in the suburbs and most outside of Cook county. 

All that being said, real estate in Chicago and suburbs is doing fine. Speaking as an agent dealing the retail and investment markets I can tell you that well priced properties move quickly and competition for "deals" is high. There is still plenty of money around and lots of transactions are being done. Rental demand for quality units is still high. Proper marketing usually gets multiple applicants etc etc. 

It is a massive market-you can find deals and tenants. July saw the following sales #'s by county

Cook 62k sales at avg price of 301k

DuPage 14k sales at avg price of 312k

Lake 10.5k sales at avg price of 299k

Kane 7k sales at avg price of 232k

Will 10.5k sales at avg price of 220k

Even rough neighborhoods like Englewood are still seeing steadily less inventory, lower market times and climbing prices. I live in the suburbs in Cook county, so I get the problem w taxes and issues here, but I still prefer IL vs IN for right now. 

Good luck!

Hey there @Account Closed !

You're doing good things for long term success, so I would suggest to keep doing that while adding things to get more "now" clients. Some of this will be market dependent. My market is flooded with free home value, seller's guides etc so that would be a waste here. Also paid leads from the big search sites are kind of pricey here so I never did much of that.

Maybe you can hold open houses for other agents in your office? Maybe some of the top agents have buyers they can refer to you, or a needy client. I looked for anything I could to talk to people ready to buy when I started. I don't telemarket so I never called expireds or fsbo's but some have success w that as well. 

Lastly, network on BP! Learn the investing business and set up keyword alerts so you can jump into conversations. It's a great way to talk lots of real estate and help you sharpen your skills.

Good luck!!