real estate investing: When buying Apartment buildings.. Keep your emotions in check - 09/14/11 03:42 AM
Keeping your emotions in check is a good idea when buying Apartment buildings ( just a little food for thought)Too many times investors walk into a deal with the mindset of a homeowner. This is a business, your major focus needs to be on cash flow, not what color the tenant painted his living room walls. Be sure you really understand and can live by the time is money principle. When a tenant moves out always anticipate double the estimated time to fill the vacancy. If you factor this into your cash flow projections, you’ll never be caught short when the … (7 comments)

real estate investing: Buying real estate investments in the Chicago Northshore.. Choose an area for the Greatest Success - 09/01/11 03:41 AM
Choose an area for the greatest success. So then how do you choose a neighborhood to buy an apartment building in? You want to shoot for an area that would be considered the ‘bread and butter’ area.  A property which is slightly lower than the average building in the area.  Remember the principle of buying the ugliest building in the prettiest neighborhood.More than likely the rents are lower than the market, which will give you plenty of opportunity to raise the rent, thereby increasing cash flow and allowing you to slowly do improvements. This process will put cash in your pocket … (6 comments)

real estate investing: Congratulations! You've made the decision to buy an Apartment building in Chicago - 08/22/11 03:31 AM
You’ve decided to invest in real estate. Okay, so you’ve made the commitment. Your all dressed up and ready to do, but where to start.Run out and buy business cards, for-rent signs, letterhead. Yeah,  these are all good things, but all in due time.The first thing to consider is in what neighborhood to invest. The best for-rent sign in the world won’t fill a building in a neighborhood where the cops won’t even go.You need a neighborhood that is close to public transportation, where people can get to and from work, tenants with jobs are good. You want schools close, preferably … (9 comments)

real estate investing: Real Estate Investing is still the best game in town - 04/18/11 04:17 AM
Real Estate is, believe or not still the best investment around.... even with the ‘crash’. Just take a look at the the statistics from Case Schiller.  The Real Estate Market vs. the Stock Market performance over the ten year period ending January 2011.  Ahh, when a picture is worth a thousand words. Don’t be fooled though there are still a lot of pitfalls out there. The days of flipping a property and making 30 or 40 grand are gone...  at least for now. Slow and steady should be the mantra for today.Here are a couple of other things to consider when … (17 comments)