All Forum Posts by: Nathan Waters

@Spencer Young, What is cornerstone? Is this a local housing assistance program? One of my tenants in Joliet is section 8, the others are traditional. That is a good area near Ingalls. Its an area I am looking to get into next.

@Spencer Young, I just started investing in Joliet last year and am planning on buying more. Its a great area for ROI. Good luck and keep us posted on your investments.

@Shane h. thanks for the information. One of my tenants already does direct deposit abs I hear croon him about one a year for random stuff. He's pretty much on auto pilot. But the other two could use some tenant training. 

Does anyone use buildium ach service? I have a buildium account but currently collect rent via direct deposit from two of my tenants. The other one has not set anything up yet and I'm collecting checks. He has been in the house less than a month and I want to get things more streamlined.

My advice.  House hack while you are young and it if feasible. It becomes much harder when you get old and crusty like me. This will set you up down the road. Why not go for a multi family vice 2 single family homes if the cash flow works. 

I live near joliet and invest there. Its a great area for investing. Good luck and keep us posted on your trials and tribulations.

The price is definitely negotiable. Some of the considerations that the bank will make are time on market and cost to repair. If they know they have a turd on their hands, they may be more willing to negotiate than if its a hot property. I have somewhat limited experience overall, but I have purchased 3 foreclosure and one short sale. I negotiated all of them and got lower than the asking price. Some lower than others. Good luck. If you aren't a little embarrassed by your offer, you are probably offering to much.

@Mateo Carrera, From my understanding about the requirements, you have to take a test with the state to get licensed and you have to have liability insurance. Someone earlier mentioned that runs about $200 a month. Then you have to be registered in the area that you are working. So for me the city of Joliet would require an annual fee of around $100 and proof of insurance. If you want to do electrical, plumbing or roofing, it requires a more expensive test and license and insurance. If there is more to it, I'm not sure. This is the info I was able to gather from my GC. 

@Jassem A., The land use department in my area is somewhat intrusive. There are two that I have had to deal with depending on where the house falls in the city limits. When I went to apply for permits, they wanted to see my drivers license with my address on it to prove I was living there. When I told him the house was uninhabitable in the current state and that i would be moving in once the renovation was complete, he told me I would need a licensed GC then. Very rude and condescending.  The city of Joliet isn't as bad, they were atleast curtious and professional. I think I am going to take the advice of the majority here and just find a new GC. Thanks for all the input. 

@David Dachtera

I appreciate the advice. I am also pretty heavily involved in the process of renovation and until I expand to several renovations at a time, will likely be actively managing the projects. By no means am I planning on doing the work myself, just managing subs, which I felt I was doing anyways and am perfectly comfortable doing so. My GC was really more or less a subcontractor that put his name on the permits because he was licensed to do so. Learning from my mistakes, it would have been easier to be the one on the permit, fire him, and get a different sub for flooring, drywall and paint. I would like to get a few rehabs under my belt before I completely hand it off to a GC again. I honestly believe that for what I paid him, it would have been cheaper to have my own GC insurance and hire a better, more efficient subcontractor for his share of the work.