All Forum Posts by: Crystal Smith

@Solomon Tompkins What courses are your favorite in Chicagoland & what's your handicap?  Welcome to BP.

Send us the investment package to review.

Pls send us the specifics on this, including the address of the property.  Our address is located in our profile.

@Bogdan Cirlig I was going to stop responding to this thread, then I saw your response on lenders not supporting "South Chicago";  drank some Xmas egg nog & decided to respond but it looks like I was beaten to the punch by @Jay Hinrichs regarding bank redlining. Private lenders/HML operate under different rules & we know some local HMLS that won't do deals in Harvey, Chicago Heights & Hazelcrest, but the rest of the South Suburbs to the Indian border is fair game.

Regarding the original post & what data to use to support a low price purchase. We purchase property both to flip & to hold. We'll pursue purchasing a SFR for a flip if we can find enough sold comparables to support our target $ margin. (We'll also look @ the DOM) We'll generally use the same criteria when we're evaluating a SFR for a hold. If there are enough sold comparables that support people purchasing for home ownership then we can also consider the property for a hold. We can use this criteria no matter price point of the property.

@Miles White We invest in Chicago & other markets.  This includes deals for our own portfolio plus deals we sell and/or partner w/ other investors.   Success here requires really doing your due diligence (reference remarks from @Dooreuhn Cee on this thread); continuously growing your network (there are multiple local REI groups to join where you'll meet people who are successful in Chicago) & thinking like Mike Ditka (you have to be tough.)

Regarding a real estate license- It's not required to be successful in the business. It can help but it's not a pre-requisite. Access to the MLS and/or relationships w/ realtors that work w/ investors is however a pre-requisite.

Does it matter what states they hold their license?

@Senica Evans Welcome to BP. We invest all over Chicago, including the Southside & South Suburbs. There are a number of REI groups around town that you should consider joining to expand your network. There are some investor friendly brokers from Chicago on BP. I can also point you in the direction of some investor friendly brokers.

@Elias Betondo If you're working w/ a realtor they should be able to provide you w/ the sold non-brick comparables near you're property.  

Something else to consider.  Only do this if the numbers make sense.  We had a frame house purchased @ a discount in the DFW area.  All the sold comparables were brick.  We had 2 different After Repair Appraisals done, one for brick & the other for a frame house.  In this particular neighborhood, adding a brick facade increase the value >$50K more than the frame.  The realtor we were using to sell the property agreed w/ the number, so we bricked up around the frame.  The DFW city fathers approved it & it sold fast.  This was a flip, not intended for cash flow so our strategy was different than yours.  

@Jason Pachomski Some information for you on HUD; unless the rules have changes since our last purchase:

• Earnest money for HUD deals is non-refundable. If you don't close, bye bye $1K.
• You're bidding against a computer on the HUD deals.
• Like many investors we bid on MLS properties, including HUD, sight unseen. If your intent is to use a HML to fund the deal you must get someone in to the property quickly to provide you w/ the info required for a renovation. You can't turn in your site unseen repair estimate to an HML. When our bids accepted we have someone @ the property within 24 to 48 hours to provide us w/ the renovation details. We also use those details to help decide whether we stay in a deal or kill it.
• Cash or Finance offer to HUD- Need to decide before you put in your bid whether it will be cash or Finance (i.e. HML finance).
• Last factor then I'm off my soap box- Take a close look @ the Days on Market for the sold comparables. If it's long then don't use an HML w/o an alternative exit strategy.