All Forum Posts by: Lucas Hammer

@Brittney Carstarphen, it really depends on what your goals are and how much money you have. I'm house-hacking near California and Cermak and love living here. I wouldn't want to live by 26th street though. As much as I love that strip, it's too far from the train for me and it's showing much slower signs of appreciation. Pilsen is great, but you pay a higher price as soon as you go East of Western, which is why I didn't go that way. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions on anything in the area!

@Vincent Incopero Awesome, thanks. I sent the property info in  PM. I appreciate it!

@Matthew Olszak Thanks for the info! I read through that and think it answers all of my questions. I really appreciate it.

@Keith Jourdan Awesome, thanks! I'll take a look through those neighborhoods and see what comes up!

@Tim Sutton Thanks for the reply! I'll do that. I'm looking to hopefully refinance out of my FHA loan once I get some more work done on the property (hopefully) so I might be able to go FHA again, but if not, I'll be looking at 6 more months of living in my current building before getting out.

So there's a vacant building near where I'm currently living and it's in a location that I'd love to own, so I looked up the property. I was able to find the most recent deed for the property from 2010. Since then there have been two "Assignments" and one Memorandum for the property. Would the most recent deed be the person I'd need to try to track down in order to ask if they'd be interested in selling or would it be based on one of the assignments? I don't have the capital yet in order to purchase the building, but I'm wanting to throw some hooks out and see what comes back. Thanks!

@Ambroise Zabaleta Yeah, I think the Paseo is going to increase it down by 26th, and I'd move there and bike to work to owner-occupy, but my wife just takes the train, so I don't see us moving down there any time soon. Love the area though.

@Michael Facchini That helps! I'm specifically still looking in Little Village since I live here and am watching the neighborhood improve every month. If I went FHA, I'd have to refinance out of my current FHA loan. Would you have any advice for the process there? Would it be wise to get an independent appraisal or go through a mortgage company to see where I stand with LTV? Also, do I have to wait a certain amount of time before trying to get an appraisal? We closed about 6 months ago and it appraised for the selling price almost exactly, so I'm not sure if a new appraiser would just reference the old one or be able to start from scratch? Thanks again!

@Ambroise Zabaleta With the 5% DP are you planning on living in one of the units? That could either hurt or help your bottom line depending on if you own or rent currently. If planning on living in it, where is it approximately and which train station is 12 minutes away? I've found that the neighborhood around California is better than around Kedzie and rents are climbing faster in that area. As far as lowering the price, do you know how long they've been on the market? LV is heating up as the money from Pilsen moves west, and I feel like the inventory hasn't been as high as I keep hoping it will be, especially north of 23rd.

Good call. After some of the issues I had, I'm definitely going to shop around more next time.