All Forum Posts by: Vanessa Buccella

Also the tenant is nice. She doesn't pay her portion of the rent on time always, but fortunately, the bulk gets dropped right into my bank by the first of each morning month.

Zack Karp I guess DTI is debt to income, but what's LTV?

Charlie S. My fees were only $83 (!!!!) until recently when they were raised to $130

John Anderson All condo buildings in Chicago have HOAs. My HOA dues are below many others. So, that's one thing I have going for me. I am going to talk to CHA (Chicago Housing Authority) about raising the rent. Then, if they won't, I will put it on the Market in Spring. I will also look again into a new FHA loan. Would it be feasible or nuts to try & get money out? Then my husband & I could possibly get something to rent out that would actually bring income.

Sue Kelly Greg S. As I said, I tried to sell it before, when my husband & I got our house (we had been living there). I had it all but sold, for less than I bought it, but the buyers financing fell through. The original rehabbers/ developers of the building owned too many units. This made the buyer lose their financing. That issue is another completely separate one. I'd love to sell it, get the money out and start again, but not sure that would happen at this point unless mortgage rules have relaxed even more since 2014. Here's how I feel: ROCK *me* HARD PLACE

@Account Closed Thank-you! I would have never thought to ask for what they would give me. That's a great idea.  Thank-you for all this information. I just fell into this whole thing, but I would like to start to earn something with this place. 

Also the HOA has raised the assessments recently and they voted to have building wide internet, which I am paying for as well. All of this has increased my monthly expenses, but i have not increased the rent to cover it because i have been afraid of them saying no.

Thank you for the suggestions!!

Thank! @Lumi Ispas - thanks for that advice about timing. I will keep everything status quo until Spring. 

@Chris Mason I believe I have looked into streamlined FHA Loan. I should look into it again.

My goal is to actually make this earn money for me, instead of breaking even, soon. 

Thank-you both. 

Hi! I live in the Northern burbs of Chicago. I'm here b/c my husband & I somewhat accidentally got into being landlords & I'd like to learn how to make that profitable. And to start investing more. I found bigger pockets through the podcast, which has been one of the more entertaining podcasts I've heard on real estate investing.

Hi! I'm Vanessa. My husband and I own a home in the north suburbs of Chicago. We both, somewhat inadvertently, fell into owning 2 rental condos in Chicago.  Both of the rentals were ours before we married and bought a house. He decided to keep & rent his as an investment. I couldn't sell mine when we bought our house, so ended up renting it out.  So boom, now we're landlords!

Here's my conundrum: While both of these will (likely) turn out to be a good investment when they're owned owned free and clear, neither are currently making any money right now.  Right now we both deal with our own condos financials. They are each under separate loans, etc. 

We both bought these as our own primary residence, with traditional 30-year mortgages. My condo was with an FHA loan, which I still have. The PMI finally dropped off last September. However with HOA fees, high Chicago Property Taxes and minimal Home owners insurance, what i get in rent barely covers what i pay.

Obviously I have explored 2 choices, re-financing and raising the rent , doing both would be best!. I currently rent it out through a Chicago Section-8 (HUD) program where the city pays a bulk of the rent and the tenant pays the rest. This is nice because the rent is guaranteed to be in my account via direct deposit by the 1st of each month. The drawback is that increasing the rent comes with red-tape and the possibility that the rent will actually be LOWERED, if the market dictates it's too high.

OK so now re-financing: I am a new small business owner. As such my PERSONAL (not family) income isn't that great. My debt to income ratio doesn't look good, on paper. Every time I have spoken with a bank (and i have MULTIPLE times), it's never been profitable for me to refinance, even though i don't have a great interest rate (it's in the 5s). I don't have enough equity and again that debt to income ratio isn't great. 

SOOOOOO ANY IDEAS!? 

PS my condo is more of an up and coming area, my husband's is in a popular area that has a LOT of development right now. We just got new tenants in his. My tenant is now on a month to month. They are both pretty "hands off" as far as tenants go.