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All Forum Posts by: Shannon Spea

Shannon Spea has started 1 posts and replied 4 times.

Post: New to House Hacking Chicago!

Shannon SpeaPosted
  • Posts 4
  • Votes 1
Quote from @Jeremy Jareckyj:

I was born and raised in Illinois. I live in salt lake now but I have a great contact there who is super knowledgable about the STR/MTR space in illinois. Happy to share him with ya!

Jeremy I’d love his information can you message me the info?

Post: New to House Hacking Chicago!

Shannon SpeaPosted
  • Posts 4
  • Votes 1
Quote from @Aaron Zimmerman:

Welcome @Shannon Spea! Congrats on your purchase in Milwaukee. A few thoughts:

1. For your Milwaukee property, try and get liquidity by opening a HELOC prior to moving. This can either help fund your next property or provide additional liquidity in case of emergency.

2. For chicago, how far would your commute be that you'd have to do 8 days a month? Ultimately up to your personal preference but that commute could drain you quickly and you might be better served by investing in a market closer to your employer and achieve similar results. 

3. If you're committed to investing in Chicago, the western suburbs are great areas to invest. The ones with more affordable price points for house hacking and with more available inventory would be Berwyn or Cicero. Personally, I love Berwyn and wish I would have invested there. It's a great working class area. For more info, connect with John Warren. 

#4: I'd get plugged into local networking groups as well as facebook groups when you come here to fast track ability to buy a deal. There are tons of great realtors and lenders, which is where you'll want to get started. On the lending side, I'd recommend Mike Facchini with Fairway Mortgage. 

#5: Listen to the straight up chicago investor podcast. You'll learn about the local market very quickly and there's some great guests they bring on. Tom and Mark are a wealth of knowledge. 


Let me know if there's any questions you have. Happy to help offline. My background is being a former house hacker and real estate CPA.  


 Aaron this is amazing!! 

1. I’ll work on getting the HELPC set up in the meantime while I’m searching. 
2. I’ve ranked the locations based on how the length of the commute

Naperville (20 min)

Downers Grove (25 min)

Oak Park/Cicero/Berwyn (45 minutes)

I think part of what I struggle with is I’m just more familiar with the surrounding Chicago areas but doesn’t mean Naperville and Downers grove wouldn’t be good options. I also like the proximity to the city but I might change my mind after sitting in traffic for 45min+.

3. Good to know! I’ll keep my options open in the beginning but I’m excited about looking in the Berwyn area.

Meet ups got it I’ll start looking into those. I’ll shoot both and John and Mike a message to connect and just started listening to the podcast great info already.

Thanks again this was so helpful!

Post: New to House Hacking Chicago!

Shannon SpeaPosted
  • Posts 4
  • Votes 1
Quote from @George Skidis:

Is the company located in southern Illinois or is your JOB located in Southern Illinois. The answers will vary upon location. We run a real estate club that meets in Southwest Illinois (Alton)about 270 miles from Chicago and Southern Illinois (Marion) about 300 miles due south of Chicago. 

Those markets are a little different from each other but drastically different from Chicago. Chicago rules are a universe to themselves. 

Our Alton meeting is tonight


Hi George! 
The office I would need to commute to would be near Naperville. The Alton and Marion meet ups sounds really interesting! Is the topic mainly around real estate in the Marion and Alton areas? 

Post: New to House Hacking Chicago!

Shannon SpeaPosted
  • Posts 4
  • Votes 1

Hi!

I’m new to real estate investing and looking to do my first hack. For context, I accepted a job offer for a company located in southern Illinois. I could commute since I would only need to be in office about 8 days a month but I know that long drive will get tiring quickly. I own a 3br/1.5 ba home in Milwaukee that’s got $100K mortgage, city assessed at $169K with homes in my area going for $200K-$225K. Because I got in at a great price and a marvelous rate I don’t want to sell.

That said, I’ve been thinking this might be a good opportunity to look into house hacking or mid term rentals in Illinois but I don’t know where to start! I’d like to stay near my job but also want to make sure it makes sense investing wise as well. I’m looking in Oak Park, Cicero, Berwyn, Naperville or Downers Grove right now. I’m giving myself a 12 month timeframe since I can commute and it gives me time to make a good financial decision vs rushing.


Any thoughts guidance or just kind words are appreciated!