Chicago Bungalow Rehab Part 1

First in a new series of forever posts

Opportunity... The Chicago Real Estate Local (T-CREL) has created quite a buzz amongst the in-laws, immediate family, friends, extended family...you get the point. Why? Because we are on the verge of a house flip. Gasp!

Seems everyone has an opinion on this. My father-in-law called his beautiful and intelligent daughter from lunch today to ask WTF? I mean, my wife almost had a heart attack when she saw his cell number pop up in the middle of the afternoon. My dad (my dad called?) even mentioned it on the phone the other day. Didn't even bring up the Cubs! Auntie and Uncle Comegys weighed in from Boston too. All that gloom and doom about the housing market... is this a good time to play HGTV?

The anatomy of a deal.

One evening I'm at dinner with friends. A close college friend asks me to come by his late father's home in the North Mayfair neignborhood and tell him what I think of it. My friend is the executor of the estate and the family needs to make some decisions on what to do with the property.

North Mayfair is on the National Register of Historic Places for it's classic Chicago bungalow architecture and role in the development of the North Side of Chicago. The house in question is a wonderfully designed and built home of this era... but needs alot of work and updating. I mean, this thing is huge, on a great block, has some fantastic details and... did I mention huge?

My friend' s family also has some conflicts on how to sell the home, with who (couple family Realtors in the mix) and... well you can imagine this situation. Never a good one.

At this time, my partner and I were looking for an opportunity to rehab a house... hmmm. Luckily, my friend out right asked if we would be interested in the home. He had thought about buying out the family, rehabbing and selling (living?) in the home himself. But, he and his partner decided against it. Too much of a hassle for them at this point in their lives. But not for me.

Did we buy the house? So what do we do first? How do we evaluate the return on investment? What is the place worth now and after the rehab? Is it smart to purchase a "home flip" now? Stay tuned.

Okay, one hint... we are in the process of negotiating the deal. So, if we don't get it, this will be a very short series. Next up, however, I'll discuss the proposal we cooked up.