All Forum Posts by: Crystal Smith
Crystal Smith has started 65 posts and replied 2754 times.
Post: Would you buy this deal? Mom and Pop Retail Space.
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Laura Casner:
650k purchase price
1300 sq ft in mixed use condoized building. True NNN.
Cap rate 7.2%
Class A Building (2008 construction recently built out for current Tennant in 2025)
Lease terms: 5 years with 3, 5 year renewals. Rent bumps annually 3%.
The Tennant is a mom and pop coffee shop that has only been open for 3 months.
The shop has a one successful location on the west coast but this is their first location in the area.
Two neighboring units just sold at 500k/sq foot, but both to owner operators.
Since the deal is dependent on one small tenant I'd try to figure out how to look at the books of the tenant before pulling the trigger
Post: Out of state investing
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Cody Miracle:
I have just recently discovered the possibility of real estate investing and I'm concerned whether I should invest out of state or not. I currently live in San Diego but seem to find the area too expensive for my liking. I am active duty military so I move around every few years for work, so I'm trying to decide if buying a property here and house hacking for the next couple of years until I move or making my first investment in a cheaper area is the better option.
So this is not my story but my business partner. He worked for a Defense Contractor for many years and many of his superiors were retired Military. He once told me a story of one of his bosses that that moved about 20 times during his career and purchased a property everywhere he moved. He never sold any of his properties, just rented them out & had a nice cashflowing portfolio when he retired. Since the homes he purchased were near military bases he never had any problems renting them out. So I say following that model.
Post: New to real Estate, is wholesaling bad in Illinois?
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Evan Alexakos:
I've been trying to save money to get into real estate and previously did much research on wholesaling; however, when I attended a meetup in Chicago for real estate. I was told that it was illegal and that, in most cases, to be a wholesaler is to be a scammer. That the practice is shady and can hurt the seller of the home. I do not post looking to offend; I am genuinely interested in finding a way to join the real estate business, though I am too low on funds for most other methods. Was that meeting just people being rude to a new investor? Is there a wrong way of wholesaling? How can I get started and do so properly?
Wholesaling is not illegal in Illinois. As of this post here's what you can legally do in Illinois.
1. You can put a property under contract, close, the immediately resell the property. You do not need a license for this. It's commonly known as double closing.
2. You can put a property under contract, find a buyer and assign your contract to the buyer. You can do one assignment per year without a license. Do more than one and you must have a real estate license. Also when marketing, if you plan on assigning a contracdt you must market the contract not the property
My recommendation to get started in Real Estate is to work towards getting a license while partnering with an experienced investor and/or real estate broker.
Post: Buying the Next Property
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Andrew Reis:
Hi - I own a 3 family in Quincy MA (just outside of Boston). I am looking to buy more property that is in Quincy or on the south side of Boston. I want to stay in state, because of the potential for appreciation and cash flow and am familiar with the good and bad areas. I am also well versed with the landlord tenant laws as I've been through an eviction.
Everyone says the first deal is the hardest to find. But I think it's saving up for the next one, especially in an expensive market. How are other investors getting over the hump? Networking with family/friends for equity on a down payment? Taking a dive into a side hustle business? Wholesaling? Flipping? Development? Property management? I am trying to preserve my cash for the next property and don't want to invest in a side hustle business with no guarantee of long term success.
Hoping to hear from fellow younger investors in MA who live in these expensive areas as well.
Cheers,
Here's what we did= Flip, Flip, Hold. You'll have to run numbers to determine target numbers for flip including timelines but in the beginning we found it faster to do it this way than savings from a W2.
Post: How to show proof of funds as an LLC
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Jeffrey Jones:
My partner has never invested in real estate through an LLC. He's pretty much an old loan wolf. He posed a great question to me that I wanted to get feedback on here to answer him. He asked me this:
If we were to purchase bank owned home or attend a foreclosure auction, how would we show proof of funds as an LLC? Do we all have to put the amount of money we need to purchase the house into that account and have it sitting there while we search for homes? Or is there some other way we can provide proof of funds to satisfy auction requirements?
His concern, or course, is the cost of money sitting in the account that could be gaining interest in his personal money market account. Anyone have advice on this process? Thanks!
If the LLC doesn't have a bank account or very little in the account then what I recommend is your cash offers Include the bank statements of the members of the LLC along with language in the LLC docmentation that shows the members commitment in cash to the operations of the LLC. Then submit the statements along with the LLC docsumentation showing the commitments with the offer
Post: Wholesale good entry for REI
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Robel Nessro:
I've heard how wholesaling is a good way to start investing in real estate, is that true?
Yes & No.
Yes- If you partner with someone or a company that you can learn from and has the cash & systems in place to acutally close on deals and an active buyers list & you comply with the laws of your state. Example- There are some licensed firms that wholesale- We have purchased from them in the past (New Western is one).
No- If you're not willing to make investments in systems, understand your state laws or have the cash to close then it's going to be tough.
Post: Buying my first property.
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Jonathan Alvarez:
Hey BP community, looking for some guidance on my situation. My lease ends in March of 2027, I am looking to stop renting and get myself into a home. House hacking or a live in flip is what I want to do. A duplex is ideal for my situation but I haven't seen many on the apps I've been looking on. I am a union electrical Apprentice so I plan on putting in a lot of sweat equity into the property. I am a veteran so A VA loan is what I plan on using, unless anyone has better suggestions. My question is, should I focus on paying off my debt which is credit cards and a car loan roughly about $20,000 in total and go to the closing table with no debt with enough for closing cost and a little bit in reserves or should I focus on saving more for closing costs and reserves and go to the closing table with more cash in the bank account? I was thinking having about $30,000 for closing costs and reserves for a multifamily would be enough, is that be realistic? I'll be earning around $90,000 stating in May 2026 with another pay bump in 2027. Thanks in advance I'm excited to become a part of the community.
It looks like you are getting a lot of great advice. Take your monthly take home pay with your current debt then ask the VA what kind of mortgage you would qualify for (Total amount and monthly PITI). With that information then partner with a realtor to take a look at the market based on those preliminary numbers. Part of your assessment with that realtor will be what kind of cashflow will the properties produce relative to your payments. With that information you can then start developing a plan to increase savings while driving down your current debt.
Regarding reserves- In my opinion having reserves is probably the most important consideration. Stuff happens and the reserves are needed to handle it.
Post: ChatGPT vs. BiggerPockets: Where do you get your answers?
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Gregory Schwartz:
I’ve been thinking—are fewer people using great forums like BP and instead going straight to the “all-knowing” ChatGPT?
As much as I love these forums, sometimes getting a clear answer can be tough. BP has been the foundation of my real estate investing journey, and I owe so much to the community here, the podcast guests, and the hosts.
BUT… lately I find myself wanting quick, straightforward answers without the forum drama, side tangents, or sales pitches. And honestly, I’ve been spending less time here and more time asking AI.
Yes, I know—one day it may enslave us all and I’m playing right into its plan … but in the meantime, it’s hard to beat instant, drama-free answers.
Am I the only one?
There are part of our process that were laborious and people driven that we now use AI, including chatgpt, for. We've taken inspection reports and dropped it into AI tools to create scopes of work. We have written draft agreements using AI, then passed it our attorney to review/update. We have also used AI to generate videos. A few example of stuff we used to do or pay someone to do, we've replaced those tasks and people with AI.
What we have not done is used AI to establish business strategy. We have trained the AI tools that we use to understand the strategies that we normally deploy and occasionally we will provide the AI with specific scenarios to analyze and provide us with alternative plans that we then have to analyze and make decisions.
Post: Beginner- Does this look like a good house hack?
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Jennie Ballard:
Quote from @Crystal Smith:
Do you mean Schedule C business loses or something different? I have a experience with Schedule C for my husband's side hustle. I haven't dug into IRS website about landlord specific taxes yet.
Schedule E or Schedule C
Post: Beginner- Does this look like a good house hack?
- Real Estate Broker
- Chicago, IL
- Posts 2,815
- Votes 1,750
Quote from @Jennie Ballard:
We are moving to SE Houston / Baytown area in the spring. I'm trying to analyze available properties for house hacking. Did I lay this out right?
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1309-Jefferson-St-Baytown...
I would say this is a B area? Certainly felt safe enough to move my kids into with good school district but older homes.
Asking $319k, I ran numbers with 10% down, 7% rate, $6k closing costs. We would obviously try to get lower than listing.
Unit 1 - 3 Bedroom & 2 Bathrooms - 1196 sf - Previously rented @ $1550/Month. <- We would occupy this unit
Unit 2 - 2 Bedoom & 1 Bathroom - 818 sf - Previously rented @ $950/Month
Unit 3 - 2 Bedrooms & 1 Bathroom - 741 sf - Previously rented @ $1250/Month
I ran a rental calculator using a rounded up tax $1500, $2000 insurance, 5% vacancy, 5% maintenance, and rents listed. I get a cash flow of -$224per month with a mortgage payment of $1916. We can easily pay the whole mortgage if needed. Cash flow would be $1177 per month once we move out.
Is small negative cash flow while you live there but $392/door once you move out decent?
Would it make sense to put 20% down to have a neutral $0 cash flow while living there and $1390 or $464/door after we move out?
If you take full advantage tax-wise of owning the property (depreciation, expense write-offs, etc.) the small negative cash flow may actually turn out to be positive when it comes to reducing your personal income tax. Before putting 20% down, run the numbers to determine the full impact on your take-home income when the reduction in taxes are considered. If you can't do it yourself, it may be worthwhile to pay an accountant or tax expert to run the what-if analysis for you.