All Forum Posts by: John Warren

@Gary Stark do you have a deal under contract? There are tons of great banks here in Chicago that lend on the north side. Very easy to find. What type of deal is it and where? I can send you a few. 

@Toure Smith finding a private lender isn't that hard, but most of the time the private money is pretty expensive. Is that the issue you are running into? If you dig in on the south or west side, you should be getting deals that are distressed enough to just use regular hard/bridge/private money that is expensive. 

@Dumitru Cobza I would definitely talk to @Mark Ainley. Their office is in the NW suburbs, and they manage well over 1000 units. A 5-20 unit building would be pretty simple for them to do for you. 

@Yusuke Koike do you have rental income to offset one of the mortgages? I ran into this early on when I was buying a deal in Berwyn. My lender at the time caught it when I switched to him. A previous lender wasn't using the income from my rentals, but was using the debt.... Once we added back in the income, it has been easy to get a loan ever since! 

@Daniel Curtin the area is a solid C class area. Don't expect massive appreciation, but the area isn't going anywhere. Rents are not super high, but they will only go up.... its work force housing which I love. 

@Yusuke Koike why wouldn't you use a regular conventional loan at that point? If the condo is warrantable, you will get much better terms with a traditional lender. 

@Daniel Curtin Blue Island will be fine as long as you have a strong plan for management. If you can self manage effectively, you will find good cash flow there. The building stock is like all the other Chicago urban core burbs, so expect lots of 1950's and 60's construction with galvanized pipes, flat roofs, boilers and outdated electrical. These are all issues you will consistently need to be able to solve anywhere in the Chicago market though. 

Welcome to the West Suburban Building Owner's Association!

We meet on a monthly basis to discuss topics pertaining to building owners and housing providers here in the Chicago suburbs. Our goal is to help you connect with like-minded individuals, stay up to date on industry hot topics, and to participate in resource sharing. We are a membership organization, but attending is free! We are centrally located to suburbs such as Berwyn, Oak Park, Forest Park, Elmwood Park, Lyons, Cicero, Stickney, Broadview, Bellwood, Hillside, Brookfield, La Grange and La Grange Park.

Join us at this month’s real estate meetup for an exciting panel on Creative Financing Strategies! Our expert speakers @Melchor Domantay, @Nathan Fernandez and John Warren—will dive into various creative approaches to financing real estate deals. Jay-R will share insights on his successful seller-financed deals, Nathan will explore the ins and outs of raising private capital, and John will discuss creative joint venture structures and hard money lending. Whether you're new to creative financing or looking to expand your knowledge, this is the perfect opportunity to learn from experienced investors and get your questions answered. Don't miss it!

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@Michael K. do you have the property yet? That is probably the harder thing to find than the architect honestly. 

You would be in good hands with either @Prashanth Mahakali or @Samuel Pavlovcik. I would focus on finding something you want to gut/spend that much money on though!

@Melissa Wongkamalasai Humboldt Park has been a solid investment area for all of my clients. If you see yourself being in the area for a long time, the main thing to look at is the building quality over the COC returns in a spreadsheet. I also think it makes sense to renovate in Humboldt due to the ongoing gentrification and also the increasing rents.

One of our investor clients purchased a four unit there last year, and he has seen incredible rents 15-20% higher than initially projected.