iamshack Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 10:46 AM) That really depends on how much your wife gets along with your in-laws. It can be a pretty intense thing, and if it goes wrong, a b**** to sort out. Yeah, for sure...they come for weeks at a time now and my wife is fine...but permanent is waaaay different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 09:45 AM) I would be careful about an ARM. You are at the mercy of the market when those reset. Also if one guy owns that much of the building, he also is going to control the condo board within the building. I am on a Planning board in my hometown and have been part of a situation where a guy controlled the homeowners association and he pretty much ran it into bankruptcy with no one able to stop him. That would be a red flag for me. Between the ARM and having one guy own that much of the building, I would consider walking away. That's a really good point, I didn't even think of the HOA part in regards to the investor. I decided to pass, just too much risk at this point and I'm not ready for that much of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockRaines Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 02:30 PM) That's a really good point, I didn't even think of the HOA part in regards to the investor. I decided to pass, just too much risk at this point and I'm not ready for that much of it. Ive been a part of fixing a broken, bankrupt HOA and its hell. Buildings can really go into the s***ter and depreciate because its poorly run. Its a very important part of the buying process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pettie4sox Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 To buy or rent, that is the question... Is it practical to save up and buy a house/condo outright? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrangeSox Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 08:09 AM) Guaranteed Rate is who we have used as well, and I have nothing but good things to say. The only time they approached us unsolicited is when the rates got to those historical lows around early 2012, like 30-year fixes in the mid-3's, and they gave us a completely free re-fi. We used GR to refinance two years ago, very very simple and easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Finally selling our condo in the city, and it's a pretty unusual deal. We had the middle unit in a semi-typical three-unit Bucktown single-lot building (a duplex down, and two single-floor units). Had been renting out our unit for a few years, but current lease ended at the end of Feb and we wanted to sell now. Investor made us an offer on our place, but wanted to buy the whole building, so he wrote us a conditional offer: $1000 down in exchange for a two week negotiating window with the other units, and we keep the thousand if he doesn't close the deal. I contacted the other two units. The duplex down had been trying to sell on and off, so she got an offer and took it too, with a closing target in June when her current renters are out. The third floor unit was owner-occupied, and hadn't said anything about wanting to sell, but they ended up deciding to go for it too, with a lease-back for six months while they look for a house (turns out they'd been debating it anyway). Inspections are underway now, we get first close, hopefully early April. Bonus: its a cash offer, so commission is sale-side only, we save probably $8000 in commission costs. Hope this all works! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 Great to hear. Hopefully it holds up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleHurt05 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 12:50 PM) Finally selling our condo in the city, and it's a pretty unusual deal. We had the middle unit in a semi-typical three-unit Bucktown single-lot building (a duplex down, and two single-floor units). Had been renting out our unit for a few years, but current lease ended at the end of Feb and we wanted to sell now. Investor made us an offer on our place, but wanted to buy the whole building, so he wrote us a conditional offer: $1000 down in exchange for a two week negotiating window with the other units, and we keep the thousand if he doesn't close the deal. I contacted the other two units. The duplex down had been trying to sell on and off, so she got an offer and took it too, with a closing target in June when her current renters are out. The third floor unit was owner-occupied, and hadn't said anything about wanting to sell, but they ended up deciding to go for it too, with a lease-back for six months while they look for a house (turns out they'd been debating it anyway). Inspections are underway now, we get first close, hopefully early April. Bonus: its a cash offer, so commission is sale-side only, we save probably $8000 in commission costs. Hope this all works! That's awesome, good luck. And ask them if they want to invest in a 19-unit building in Old Irving Park too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipps Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 12:50 PM) Finally selling our condo in the city, and it's a pretty unusual deal. We had the middle unit in a semi-typical three-unit Bucktown single-lot building (a duplex down, and two single-floor units). Had been renting out our unit for a few years, but current lease ended at the end of Feb and we wanted to sell now. Investor made us an offer on our place, but wanted to buy the whole building, so he wrote us a conditional offer: $1000 down in exchange for a two week negotiating window with the other units, and we keep the thousand if he doesn't close the deal. I contacted the other two units. The duplex down had been trying to sell on and off, so she got an offer and took it too, with a closing target in June when her current renters are out. The third floor unit was owner-occupied, and hadn't said anything about wanting to sell, but they ended up deciding to go for it too, with a lease-back for six months while they look for a house (turns out they'd been debating it anyway). Inspections are underway now, we get first close, hopefully early April. Bonus: its a cash offer, so commission is sale-side only, we save probably $8000 in commission costs. Hope this all works! Wow, very nice how all the pieces are falling into place for that. I need that investors name so I can contact him to buy all the units in the condo that we rent out LOL. Tired of dealing with that property and the tenant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick Allen Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 (edited) QUOTE (iamshack @ Mar 12, 2015 -> 11:40 AM) Oh good point... Do you think living with your parents and/or your in laws, even if in a well-designed, large space, would drive you absolutely f***ing crazy though? My buddy has a father who is near blind and his mother died. He was planning building a new house when she passed, and actually built his place plus a coach house for his dad to live in because he really wouldn't have been able to live without some help. It's been several years and everything seems to be great. Edited March 13, 2015 by Dick Allen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthSideSox72 Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 QUOTE (shipps @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 01:19 PM) Wow, very nice how all the pieces are falling into place for that. I need that investors name so I can contact him to buy all the units in the condo that we rent out LOL. Tired of dealing with that property and the tenant. Haha, what neighborhood is it in? This particular person already owns a building in our kind of odd little neighborhood that is sandwiched between Bucktown and Lincoln Park. We're just south of that horrible Fullerton/Damen/Elston intersection, but they are finally starting to rebuild it (Elston is actually being re-routed around it), and suddenly the investors are all bullish on the area. I think he's focused there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maggsmaggs Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 What's nice about condos is oftentimes you can force a reluctant owner to sell his or her condo if you have a majority of owners on your side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipps Posted March 13, 2015 Share Posted March 13, 2015 QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 13, 2015 -> 01:34 PM) Haha, what neighborhood is it in? This particular person already owns a building in our kind of odd little neighborhood that is sandwiched between Bucktown and Lincoln Park. We're just south of that horrible Fullerton/Damen/Elston intersection, but they are finally starting to rebuild it (Elston is actually being re-routed around it), and suddenly the investors are all bullish on the area. I think he's focused there. Hyde Park. We just hired a property management agency to take over everything. We haven't had a good experience but mostly because of the other owners who actually live in the building. They always have issues and half of them don't pay their association dues. The ones that don't pay have will call us (since my wife was the treasurer) and try to get the the condo association management company to not put them in collections for being so far behind. Its really a headache and pretty much a property we wont be able to sell for another couple years until we can get value. Even though we moved away two years ago AND we recently hired the PMA other owners still try contacting us and getting us involved. We had to tell them DONT CALL US ANYMORE. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 Putting an offer on a condo today, place just came on the market 2 days ago, they have 15 showings between today and tomorrow and already received a contract offer before I sent mine in. Offer is 5k over asking price, hoping it's enough and that's my best and final offer so fingers crossed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamshack Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 03:54 PM) Putting an offer on a condo today, place just came on the market 2 days ago, they have 15 showings between today and tomorrow and already received a contract offer before I sent mine in. Offer is 5k over asking price, hoping it's enough and that's my best and final offer so fingers crossed! Good Luck Russ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farmteam Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 05:54 PM) Putting an offer on a condo today, place just came on the market 2 days ago, they have 15 showings between today and tomorrow and already received a contract offer before I sent mine in. Offer is 5k over asking price, hoping it's enough and that's my best and final offer so fingers crossed! Good luck! What neighborhood? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Thanks guys! Albany Park, essentially Montrose and Kimball (a few blocks west) so near the end of the brown line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Ugh, pulled the offer, so many red flags came up on the building. It's a 10 year old building (34 units) and they have 0 reserves and already needed a special assessment for repairs. The selling realtor asked for final offers by 5pm monday, they had multiple offers 2 days ago, so stupid. Anywho, I found a nice plan b place and saw it yesterday so that may work out anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 That sucks, sorry Russ. Amazing how inept some/most condo associations are Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 So the selling realtor sucked, the main one said there were no reserves, but her "assistant" later sent us details saying they have 130k in reserves. The assistant also said we won the bid, but we had told the main realtor that we pulled the offer (the day before). So while they have a decent reserve I still didn't like that they already had major repairs going on and would need an attorney to really go over the details of the building/health of the HOA. So decided to not put the offer back out there. I moved on to another place, it's about 30k overpriced though so not sure what will happen as I'm putting in an offer at what the market says it should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipps Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 04:06 PM) So the selling realtor sucked, the main one said there were no reserves, but her "assistant" later sent us details saying they have 130k in reserves. The assistant also said we won the bid, but we had told the main realtor that we pulled the offer (the day before). So while they have a decent reserve I still didn't like that they already had major repairs going on and would need an attorney to really go over the details of the building/health of the HOA. So decided to not put the offer back out there. I moved on to another place, it's about 30k overpriced though so not sure what will happen as I'm putting in an offer at what the market says it should be. Usually the asking price is about 20-30k over priced so you will have a good shot at it. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 04:11 PM) Usually the asking price is about 20-30k over priced so you will have a good shot at it. Good luck. Well it's listed at 235, and the owner has a mortgage of 210 still on it. I don't think they'll go for my initial offer at 195 but I would imagine they will be willing to pay a bit on their mortgage. Otherwise they'll need to do a shortsale, because I don't think it's getting appraised anywhere near 235k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shipps Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 04:56 PM) Well it's listed at 235, and the owner has a mortgage of 210 still on it. I don't think they'll go for my initial offer at 195 but I would imagine they will be willing to pay a bit on their mortgage. Otherwise they'll need to do a shortsale, because I don't think it's getting appraised anywhere near 235k. Would it be appraised at 210 though? Because then they wouldnt have to do a short sale if they can get that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigruss Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 05:09 PM) Would it be appraised at 210 though? Because then they wouldnt have to do a short sale if they can get that much. Possibly, it's a bit unique in that it has a huge 28x20 outdoor deck, but it's smaller than some of the comps (or doesnt have a 2nd bath as some of them do), and market comp is saying 195 right now. Not really sure how high it could get appraised right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleHurt05 Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 01:36 AM) Thanks guys! Albany Park, essentially Montrose and Kimball (a few blocks west) so near the end of the brown line. Nice, my condo ( a rental now) is just SW of there, although I refer to it as Old Irving Park. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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