All Forum Posts by: Lucas Hammer

Hey, glad I got the notification for this. I've been meaning to update here as well. Just closed on a 2-flat East of California near Cermak. We'll be house hacking so we're moving there over the next 6 months. The unit were moving into is a 2br spread across 2 floors and it was rented for 875. I can't speak to the quality of the tenants, but I hope to have an update on the 1br tenant soon. He's paying 675, and seems good so far. 

Also, Frank, once in, I'd be up for grabbing a cup of coffee. I know exactly zero REIs in the area, so it'd be nice to meet a like-minded investor.

So, we just bought our first deal, a house-hack on Chicago's Southwest side. I spend about a day or two reading the RLTO in it's entirety. Then I read the Exclusions section, and since it's owner-occupied and less than 6 units, it appears that the only thing that applies to me is the tenant lockout ordinance. For anyone who has house hacked in Chicago, can you answer if there's another ordinance I should be looking at? It kind of looks like we can do whatever we want with the lease.

We still plan on using the RLTO as a guideline for late fees, interest on deposits, etc., but I want to make sure there isn't another ordinance that applies to us instead of the RLTO. Thanks.

Hey everyone. We put an offer in on a 2-flat in Chicago and we requested a 3% closing cost credit, which was accepted. They've now came back in reply to our inspection requests stating that they'd like to provide a $2,000 credit at closing rather than complete repairs. My question is this: What is the maximum seller's credit? My understanding is that if they go over the maximum, my lender won't accept it and will take it as a lower sale, but depending on the site I look at, some say 3% max and some say 6% max.

If it is a 3% max, I'm guessing the only thing I could ask is that they complete the repairs then? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the reply. To clarify, this is about a 6 foot wall and it's the foundation for the added staircase in the back when they converted it from a SFH to a 2-flat. The foundation for the original building is in fantastic condition, but this small staircase addition has the deterioration on the short wall.

As far as risky, to replace a 6 foot section of foundation, what kind of price range do you think (assuming you can even give a ballpark by the picture)? We have additional money, but I don't know if we need 4 or 5k or 20k.

I originally posted this in the Chicago forum, but realized it made more sense here.

Hey everyone, I'm working on closing my first deal in Chicago and the only issue I've found so far is a small foundation issue where it appears that the concrete is coming loose and I'm looking for some opinions on it and I wasn't sure where else to post this.

We were originally thinking that the foundation might be sinking, but my dad, a contractor in Oklahoma, pointed out that the top of it looked fine and it'd show cracks if it was actually sinking. He said the picture looks to point him to a water leak as its just causing the concrete to fall. There is a gutter near this that isn't sealed well that would cause that to make sense.

I guess my questions are:

1. From the picture, does that seem like it might be correct?

2. Does anyone know of a foundation company in the area that might be able to give me even a ballpark idea from a photo? It's tenant occupied and not immediately accessible and we're deciding if we should accept a counter offer they gave us as a credit instead of repair.

Thanks in advance.

Hey everyone, I'm working on closing my first deal and the only issue I've found so far is a small foundation issue where it appears that the concrete is coming loose and I'm looking for some opinions on it and I wasn't sure where else to post this. 

We were originally thinking that the foundation might be sinking, but my dad, a contractor in Oklahoma, pointed out that the top of it looked fine and it'd show cracks if it was actually sinking. He said the picture looks to point him to a water leak as its just causing the concrete to fall. There is a gutter near this that isn't sealed well that would cause that to make sense. 

I guess my questions are:

1. From the picture, does that seem like it might be correct? 

2. Does anyone know of a foundation company in the city that might be able to give me even a ballpark idea from a photo? It's tenant occupied and not immediately accessible and we're deciding if we should accept a counter offer they gave us as a credit instead of repair. 

Thanks in advance. 

Nice! We're considering doing quite a few buy and holds in the area if this first one works out for a year. With the low cost of living in the neighborhood and low prices (especially the closer to 26th you are), we might be just saving up to do 20% commercial loans on other properties where we can stay closer to the train and keep our jobs downtown.

Hey @Frank S., so we're just going into contract on a 2-flat in Little Village. Our offer was accepted and we have an FHA loan all lined up. Hopefully closing in July. We're on the northeastern side of the neighborhood, to the east of the California Pink line and near the shopping centers with Pete's Fresh Market, etc. in them. Assuming inspection/appraisal go well, we should be good to go!

Thanks! It's all new to me, but my wife and I are seriously looking forward into taking advantage of every tax benefit we can find. The rent isn't that high, so we'll likely be able to write off some of our regular salary as well (assuming I understand the $25,000 rule correctly). I've been obsessing with BP for about 6 months now hoping for my first deal to go through, so assuming that inspection/appraisal go well, we should be up and running in 6 weeks!

So my wife and I are in a contract to purchase a 2-flat and we'll be living in one unit while renting the other one. I know that expenses for upgrades and repairs can be written off, but I found it hard to figure out what other allowable expenses there are. We will not (at least for a bit) be using an LLC and will just be self-managing the property. I'm expecting there to be a decent amount of updates done soon, so I'll be able to expense those, but I wasn't sure if things like operating meetings, canvasing the neighborhood to compare other prices (mileage and or related dinners to see the area), etc. are included if we're not an LLC.

For the record, I'm not wanting specific legal advice as we plan on getting a CPA before tax season, but more of a guideline on what we can and can't claim as operating expenses for the unit we'll be renting. Thanks in advance.