All Forum Posts by: Nathan Waters

One is a 1 BR 1 Bath that gets 650 per month. I spent about 8-10K restoring it. The other was a 2 BR 1 Bath that gets 1170 a month. It was a money pit but its bringing in steady rent with a section 8 tenant. @Aaron Mikottis has a more methodical approach on where to buy. He has spreadsheets and maps on the best areas to look into.

I am a veteran as well and I invest in Joliet. The taxes are high in general in Illinois but its still less than some of the surrounding areas. Unless you go into Indiana, expect to pay more in taxes. I bought some beaters for around 20K each but like @Aaron Mikottis said, they aren't the greatest areas. Not the worst part of town, but I like the challenge of renovating ****** houses

Good luck getting started. Just joining and being involved in this community has given me the energy and confidence to finally get off my *** and take action. Let us know about your progress.

I have a couple rentals in joliet. I'm really excited for the next few years. It seems like the economic opportunity is expanding here with lots of distribution centers being built and adding jobs. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

@Nino Alfano, Thanks. I'm looking to make another purchase in the next month or two, so depending on the scope of work I will reach out to you. Are you licensed in plumbing or electrical? I have people I have used in the past that are licensed but I would like to have another contractor in case one isn't available.

It would have caused problems for me in the past. It was one of the road blocks I had when I was in the military. My income was much smaller and a second mortgage was not feasible.

@Jason Jones

The sofi loan was not a mortgage, it was a personal loan used for funding the houses. So effectively there was no debt on the properties initially. I did a cash out refinance and paid off one loan I had from lending club. It was a higher interest. The second cash out refinance was just completed yesterday. I haven't done anything with that money yet. I may use it to buy another property and just keep the sofi loan because it has a relatively low interest rate and I am currently cashflowing among all of my houses with the sofi loan and the mortgages. I have 3 rentals. I could pay off sofi and cash flow better or use the proceeds from the refinance to grow. It didn't impact me for refinancing much because I have a pretty high income from my primary job so the impact on the debt to income ratio was minimal. I am also putting the refinances in my LLC and therefore they are not going on my personal credit. Although the bank did pull a credit report just to confirm that I wasn't a deadbeat. Local banks are grat to work with and I will probably forgo using peer to peer lending in the future and focus on building working relationships with the local bankers I am currently working with.

@Daniel Hanson, I took out a personal from sofi for 50K at 8%. Used it for purchase and rehab of 2 properties along with a loan from my 401k. That was the maximum amount I could borrow at the time. That was back around September- October 2015.

Not looking right now, But I will be in the coming months. Thanks @Chris T.

I did get all of this in a new lease. The new lease ends at the same date as her previous lease. I did not extend her for a full year. Just in case this doesn't work out, I don't want to deal with her for 12 full months. I know what you mean @Joe Splitrock. I was getting close to the point of giving an eviction notice, but my bottom line would be worse off if she stopped paying rent as well and I had to spend 4-6 months on an eviction. I think I can make this work. Thanks for all of the feedback from everyone. Its great to hear different opinions. I try not to be too lenient with the tenants and I think this struck a good balance. Like I stated before, her other utilities are all in her name and she hasn't had an issue with those.