[BTM]

ib4 al

[BTM]

Originally Posted by gary88

Why must towels take so long to dry

well...they are designed to retain moisture

[gary88]

This is 2011 I shouldn't have to wait that long

Mark send me a new space age dryer

[Ricer X]

Originally Posted by vasillalov

I just closed on my first condo yesterday afternoon. Since I've came to the states, I've always rented (over 11 years now). It made sense to rent while I was in college and grad school and it made sense to rent while I was just moving in Chicago for my job.

I bought a foreclosure in excellent condition. I'll spare you the details concerning the property, and I'll just note that I am moving into a bigger place, will have garage and my monthly payment drops by $300 per month compared to me currently renting. This includes payments to principal, interest, property taxes, HOI etc etc.

My advise to you is to get in touch with a realtor and start looking. The housing market in the city of Chicago is saturated with short sales and foreclosures. A lot of these properties are actually selling below construction cost, as is the case with my condo.

Let me know if you need the contact info of the realtor I am dealing with. He is currently the top 10 performing realtor in Chicago.

P.S.:
I think of it this way: by the time I am 45 years old (I just turned 30 last week), will have 1 completely paid off property in Chicago! Even if I don't live in it the whole time, I can always rent it out.

Lying braggart

Leave it to you to point out that your realtor is one of the top ten performing realtors. Based on what exactly? Listings? Sales $? Units sold? % of listings sold? Transactions? Transaction value? # of Bratislavan lying braggart clients? All those rankings by realtors are BS and are manipulated by each realtor to promote himself. Is he by himself? Does he have a team working for him that contributes to his numbers?

If I remember correctly, he works for @ properties, which is owned by a scheister who tried to develope condos in the suburbs, failed miserably, bankrupting his company and leaving a bunch of shithole buildings with well under funded reserve funds.

[Ricer X]

Will, the government was pushing for home ownership and it was pretty overt. It goes back to the Carter administration and was accelerated by the Clinton admin and continued by the latter Bush admin.

The banks and wall street were culpable but only to the extent that they saw $ to be made legally and got really greedy and basically bastardized the entire process within the law but outside of the realm of good business practices.

[Ricer X]

James -

Being one of the few financial professionals that are active in the real estate, taxation, and investment fields let me try to answer your query this way:

You have pretty much thought it out it seems and you are ahead of the game compared to most people. Ultimately, people should stop looking at their primary residence as an investment. In normal environments you would see appreciation, but it is a slow moving asset class at best. The real value of real estate as an investment comes in the ability to rent or to quickly sell for a profit and reinvest those profits in a like/kind type property and repeat, multiplying your profit each time.

So aside from the longer term view of renting the property in 8 years, take the investment part of the discussion out of the equation. Then it comes down to pure "all-in" cash flow (as you described taking into account all aspects) and convenience. Basically if it is a push or better to own then the ability to have an asset to leverage later is the decision maker. If it is well beyond a push to the bad, then things get less attractive.

Edit - I am sure you already have, but James, I would build into the model a steady increase in property taxes over time. I am also of the belief that income taxes will rise and as such the value of that deduction for property taxes and interest increases.

I say all of the above and then say something general, but usually true...owning asset>not owning asset in most cases.

[Ricer X]

For the record Wil, I'm 42...exactly 7 years older.

Is it Wil or Will. I always think guys that spell it with two l's should pronounce it wi-l-l (wi-la-la).

[Ricer X]

Dammit Seth....I should have just had you hold onto the tires. Ended up at Dave's Italian Kitchen in Evanston for dinner. 2 adults/2 kids, 3 awesome entrees, 2 glasses vino, 1 desert, 2 coffees...$68 before tip....good stuff. But its a short hop to Glenview from there.

Of course we were only there because the wait at kuma's corner was 3 FUCKING HOURS!!!! Its a great burger, but really?

It all turned out well though as we made a little tour of Villasenor faves. In addition to the above, picked up some Hero's subs, and some Hecky's for tomorrow and Mon...

[UdubBadger]

Originally Posted by BTM

ib4 al

[UdubBadger]

Originally Posted by AFV335i

Dammit Seth....I should have just had you hold onto the tires. Ended up at Dave's Italian Kitchen in Evanston for dinner. 2 adults/2 kids, 3 awesome entrees, 2 glasses vino, 1 desert, 2 coffees...$68 before tip....good stuff. But its a short hop to Glenview from there.

Of course we were only there because the wait at kuma's corner was 3 FUCKING HOURS!!!! Its a great burger, but really?

It all turned out well though as we made a little tour of Villasenor faves. In addition to the above, picked up some Hero's subs, and some Hecky's for tomorrow and Mon...

no worries, their waiting for you at the STO so you can practice with Johan for his wedding night.

Heckys was so tempting when I drove past it yesterday on the way back from Davis Street Fishmarket.

[Ricer X]

right....thankfully we took the wife's car so my car wouldn't smell like it...

[CubanJJ09]

Anyone else watching the 24 hrs at daytona?

[Ricer X]

Originally Posted by UdubBadger

sorry everybody, but every word he types makes me want to punch him right in his face. I won't ever let it go, so get used to it so long as he continues to disgrace himself by not fulfilling his promise thereby dishonoring this thread and the people in it. Am I taking this way too seriously? Yes...but fuck him.

[mithiral67]

Thanks vasil.

[Ricer X]

One thing I realized at dinner tonight...why don't I eat more lasagna? Its so good, and I only ate half so there is more for tomorrow but I never order it.

Fuckin Jude Law is a bad ass in Repo Men

[mithiral67]

Thanks al, yea, with the market as it is, I know its realistically a toss up when comparing the cost between the two, it's were I want to bit the bullet. I know everyones advice is if I plan to not move, it's really a better choice in the long run. But even at 31 and at a job I really like my job and I have a future there, but buying a condo seems so final with my life.

[mithiral67]

Ugh post from phone is bad typing.

[BTM]

Originally Posted by mithiral67

Ugh post from phone is Los typing.

fixed

[Ricer X]

LOL...in some ways it is. It is a big step and if you make a mistake it is not easily undone, especially now.

One more thing I forgot to mention and to consider...

The association. This is one area where you can really get fucked if you are not careful. Ask to see budgets to actuals for as many years as you can get and a forecast for both the balance of the current year and the reserve expenditures as far out as they know (if they don't even have a reserve study spelling that out, run). Then compare the future value of the reserve fund and all planned contributions to the expense forecast. If it does not match up favorably, a increase in addition to inflation is pending.

Edit - sorry for going on and on...but James - don't expect your realtor/mortgage guy to do that for you. They are sales guys, usually hacks and they claim they will, but you are far smarter than they.

[mithiral67]

Originally Posted by AFV335i

LOL...in some ways it is. It is a big step and if you make a mistake it is not easily undone, especially now.

One more thing I forgot to mention and to consider...

The association. This is one area where you can really get fucked if you are not careful. Ask to see budgets to actuals for as many years as you can get and a forecast for both the balance of the current year and the reserve expenditures as far out as they know (if they don't even have a reserve study spelling that out, run). Then compare the future value of the reserve fund and all planned contributions to the expense forecast. If it does not match up favorably, a increase in addition to inflation is pending.

Yea, i have heard a couple bad stories about this. My father was the president of the one him and my mothers live in and most the folks involved dont have a clue about managing the associations books.

[gary88]

Ended up staying in tonight, have more work to do that I thought

[Ricer X]

I was in Game Stop today...saw new maps for BO coming out on the 11th I think.