Invest
Run the numbers before you fall in love with the building.
Residential income, multifamily and commercial — for people buying their first two-flat and for people adding to a portfolio. The analysis comes before the enthusiasm.
What Realproz handles
Three kinds of income property.
Residential income
Single-family rentals and the classic Chicago two-flat. Buying a two-flat, living in one unit and renting the other is still one of the most practical ways people in these neighborhoods get started — and it can be financed as a home rather than as an investment.
Multifamily
Three-flats, four-flats and small apartment buildings. Different financing, different due diligence, different math. Rent rolls, vacancy, expenses and capital items all get examined before an offer, not after.
Commercial
Storefronts and mixed-use buildings on the commercial corridors Realproz already works — the kind of property where the lease, not the building, is the thing you are really buying.
How an investment purchase runs
Slower at the start. Much faster at the end.
Define the box
Target return, cash available, financing route, and how much management you are genuinely willing to do. Buildings that fall outside the box do not get sent to you.
Underwrite before touring
Rent roll, actual expenses, taxes, insurance, and realistic vacancy and maintenance assumptions. A lot of listings stop being interesting at this step, which saves everyone a Saturday.
Tour with a list
Roof, mechanicals, tuckpointing, electrical service, water in the basement. On older Chicago buildings these are the items that decide whether the deal works.
Offer with the right contingencies
Inspection, financing, and — on tenanted buildings — delivery of leases and estoppel information. Written to protect you without making the offer unattractive.
Due diligence and close
Verify what the seller stated, coordinate your attorney and lender, and get to closing with no surprises left in the file.
What this page is not
This is real estate brokerage, not investment, tax or legal advice. The numbers on any deal get checked by your own accountant and attorney before you commit, and we will tell you the same thing in person.
What we do bring is a close read of four specific areas, and the willingness to tell you when a building does not work.
Bring a building you're considering.
Send the address and we will underwrite it with you — including the version where the answer is no.