Chicago Real Estate Investing Blog

By Mark Ainley

2022 New Conventional and FHA Loan Limits

The Conventional and FHA mortgage loan limits for 2022 will be increasing significantly over the 2021 limits in the United States. These loan limits are also known as Conforming Loan Limits. Any loan size above the limits is known as a Jumbo loan. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may o...

By Mark Ainley

THE NBOA in 2021 and What’s Ahead

I recently had the pleasure of recapping 2021 with the President of the NBOA (and father of an Olympian), Mike Glasser. Over the past year, Mike did a tremendous job leading an organization of over 600 members spread across nine neighborhood building groups. Our team at Straight ...

By Mark Ainley

Five Motivation Factors to Consider When Building Solid Direct Mailer Lists

Direct mail outreach campaigns to owners of C-Class properties have a proven track record of getting results. Much of that success depends on determining how motivated an owner may be to sell. To increase the likelihood of success, investors should take the time to learn how to b...

By Mark Ainley

Affordable Housing an Option for Low Income Tenants

Section 42 is the Internal Revenue Service tax law section. It provides a low-income housing tax credit for "investing in certain low-income housing". As a general rule, real estate owners can claim an annual tax credit if they provide a certain number of units in...

By Mark Ainley

Understanding 2-4 Unit Appraisals in Chicago

For those looking to purchase a 2-4 unit building in Chicago, one of the most important variables to accurately forecast is the appropriate value of the property - whether it be a stabilized purchase value, or the anticipated after repair value (ARV). The appraised value of 2-4 u...

By Mark Ainley

UBIT and UDFI - What You Need to Know For Investing in Your IRAs

In this article, I look to cover the basic elements of Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) and Unrelated Debt Financing Tax (UDFI) as they pertain to real estate investors. Usually, when we are talking about these taxes for real estate investors, it’s typically within the ...

By Mark Ainley

Paying Your Family In Your Business

The IRS encourages you to hire your family members in your business. What this can do is shift income from a higher tax bracket to a lower tax bracket. This strategy can be powerful depending on your level of income from your real estate related businesses. In this article, we wi...

By Mark Ainley

Time Value of Money; Get $ for your business now

Have you ever read about lottery winners who win millions and decided to take the lump sum now versus the installments over more than twenty years? Why would someone make this choice? Any economist will tell you that if you have the opportunity to take the money now i...

By Mark Ainley

Qualified Business Income Deduction: A Free 20% Deduction (With Some Catches)

In the tax world, I’ve already noted that there’s been quite a few changes in recent years. One change that I haven’t talked about until now is the qualified business income deduction (QBID). This came out as part of the latest tax cuts effective for tax years s...

By Mark Ainley

A RECAP OF BISNOW'S “CHICAGO STATE OF THE MARKET

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to attend Biznow’s “Chicago State of the Market.” The half-day event featured panels of city officials, architectects, capital market executives, construction leaders, mega developers, and even past Straight Up Chicago I...

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