5 Essential Tips for First-Time Investors in Chicago Real Estate

Michael Stansbury (00:00.398)
Hello everybody and welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. My name is Mike Stansbury and today from Chicago, Michael White. How are you sir?

Micah White (00:09.238)
Hey everyone, hey Mike, thanks for having me on. I’m super excited.

Michael Stansbury (00:13.486)
Yeah, man, we’re excited to have you here. But first, we’ve got to tell you guys about Investor Fuel. At Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5X their businesses, to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Michael White, young man. And let me ask you this. What pivoted you? What got you started in real estate? What’s your origin story? Maybe tell us what you were doing beforehand and why

you’ve got in a real estate market.

Micah White (00:44.588)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So I’ll take you way back to when I was an undergrad, right? So way back three, four years ago. Right. So, I mean, getting into real estate, I didn’t know much about it until going to school. I went to Indiana University and, you know, when I started, I majored in finance and real estate and that’s where I sort of figured out, okay, you don’t have to be just a real estate agent. You know, you can be a developer, an investor on the side. I have a really good mentor that

Michael Stansbury (00:52.398)
Way back. Don’t go too far.

Micah White (01:13.672)
I got from school that is a personal investor. fast forward to two years ago, upon graduation, I went on to do real estate transactions at a firm called LaSalle Investment Management, they’re the investment management of JLO. And so I spent two years there facilitating commercial real estate transactions, retail, industrial, not too much office at that time, but a lot of multifamily as well. So I have a lot of deal experience that way. And then…

just recently about eight or nine months ago, give or take, I went on to go in the consulting route, real estate consulting route. So I left my acquisitions position at LaSalle and went to a firm called Hundan Partners that specializes in real estate development consulting. And so that’s where I kind of gained my two sides of the same coin type of mantra there. And then I just recently stepped away and now I’m pursuing my…

own real estate consulting company where I help first time investors get into their first real estate property in Chicago.

Michael Stansbury (02:15.458)
OK, great. So how is that market in Chicago? We hear a lot of things about red state, blue state, and about how it may be difficult in a blue state in Illinois to invest. In particular, I Chicago is a dense urban environment. And it’s got a lot to offer commercially and residentially. So what does that look like in Chicago?

Micah White (02:28.951)
Yep.

Micah White (02:36.204)
Yeah, definitely. you know, to answer your question, I would start by saying it depends on what your focus is, right? What’s your strategy? Are you a long-term investor or are you a flipper? Are you a short-term rental type of investor? I think we start there and then me being a long-term investor, I see nothing but opportunity in Chicago. You know, there’s a ton of three flats, four flats to use low down payment, know, investor friendly loans, right? There’s a lot of new developments in some of these newer neighborhoods.

north side of Chicago is getting really expensive, not just for owners, but for renters as well. So we’re seeing almost a sprawl towards the west side of Chicago currently, and that’s where I’ve made my investments.

Michael Stansbury (03:18.944)
Okay, yeah, so it’s always about location and there’s opportunities there. so when people, I think, get lost in, it’s a big city, but within a big city, there’s just a lot of different boroughs, suburbs, you name it, of how you can invest in. so now at 25 years old, you’ve already got, what does your personal rental portfolio look like and how did you go about acquiring those?

Micah White (03:21.944)
Definitely.

Micah White (03:30.443)
Absolutely.

Micah White (03:42.156)
Yeah, yeah. So I have seven units across Chicago, three unit in Logan Square, and we just recently closed on a four unit in North Wallendale. two up and coming, you know, getting established neighborhoods that we, you know, we really got in at a good price point per unit that we feel really comfortable with now. But in terms of getting into the game, you heard my background in real estate. So I came with that side of things, but I’ve partnered with, I call him my business partner, but he’s also my best friend of

you know, 20 years, right? And so we’ve sort of tackled this adventure in building our empire together, right? And to get in our first unit, our first building, we used a owner-occupied 5 % down loan, right? Where we buy it, live in it for a full year, and then move out and rinse and repeat, right? So we’ve done that twice now, the second being the four unit in North Lawndale.

Michael Stansbury (04:32.171)
wow.

Alright, so you have the long term, you’re investing for the long term, so you’re keeping that in mind, so your foreground’s out there in the future, so you’re making choices now so you can win later. Is that most of your clientele, or how do you educate, how does a person comes to you, what does your top of your funnel look like, who are those people and how do you help them?

Micah White (04:47.669)
Absolutely.

Micah White (04:58.616)
Yeah, so I mean it ranges, right? So I would say my ideal client avatar ranges from ages 25 to 55, right? That are looking to get into real estate and what’s key is having the means to get into real estate. You know, I’m really focusing on people who wanna take that next step. You know, they can, the people that are interested but just kinda getting their toes wet. have information for you as well, but in terms of what I offer.

It’s for people that want to get into their first rental in 6 to 12 months. Right? And so that that range of spectrum that 25 to 55, there’s some people that come to me that are brand new investors and want to make cash flow, right? They want to make a thousand bucks a month, get three, four units and then leave their jobs. Right. And then there’s others that start a little younger and they say, hey, you know, I’m going to have a really good job that I’m learning a lot at and that I love a ton. And I want to be a little more hands off. So I’m going to do a buy and hold.

Michael Stansbury (05:29.922)
Right.

Micah White (05:53.484)
where I may bring on a property management company to come help me and I can help them find the property management company to come run their property, but they want to be more hands off, right? So I would say all clients hell along any risk spectrum, right? But it really comes down to what they’re looking for personally. Do they want to be hands on? Do they want to be hands off? And again, to your point, are they short term, long term investors and really talking them through what they want?

and what their goals look like will really help me help them and identify their strategy.

Michael Stansbury (06:27.532)
Yeah, finding out what their vision is for your life and then matching the right product for their goals. So yeah, so.

Does this transaction happen like as a real estate agent or real estate coach? What is the difference or how do you marry those two things? Because I get it when you’re real estate, most real estate agents, if they’re great, right, they’re educating at the same time. Are you doing the real estate coaching as part of that or is there some other profit center for that?

Micah White (06:57.174)
Yes. So my real estate coaching platform is completely separate from agent. I’m not an agent. I’m not certified agent. I don’t have any of those certifications, but what I do have is deal experience. Right. I’ve closed over 175 million in transactions at my prior private equity firm, and I’ve closed over a million in transactions on the personal side. So what I bring to the table is credibility and proof that you can do it too. Right. And so I marry my experience and specifically in the Chicago area.

and my network, right? So I have the agents you need. I have the contractors, the lenders. I feel that in my experience, I had, you know, those five mentors, the lender, the agent, the contractor, you know, the old college professor, right? That was kind of helping me holding my hand through the investment journey and getting into my first rental. But what I’m bringing to the table is I’m going to be all five in one, right? And when you need to take that next step, I can point, I can give you the phone number to get.

to get you into the door and moving and grooving.

Michael Stansbury (07:56.911)
Well, you mentioned mentorship beforehand and we just talked about that, you were mentored by five different verticals within real estate. So tell me about your mentorship. Tell me about those relationships a little bit. Like what was, maybe what were your first mentorship like and why is it so critical for real estate investors to jump on the mentorship train?

Micah White (08:19.22)
my goodness. Mike, we could spend all day talking about just this, you know, my portfolio and what I’ve done aside. I mean, I wouldn’t be here without them. You know, I’m super grateful for those that I’ve met. You know, my very first mentor was in college. It was in my Intro to Real Estate Investing course. And, you know, this was 19 year old me only knew about real estate when becoming an agent, right? That’s all I knew in real estate. And he’s the one that opened up my eyes like, look,

You can have a portfolio of your own real estate. can develop, you can you can be an LP in a deal. You can be completely hands off. You can be an out of state investor. Right. He was just opening my horizon to all these different avenues in real estate. And so I still Doug McCoy, I’ll never forget him. If you’re if you’re a Hoosier, go talk to Doug McCoy. He’s the man. But yeah, I mean, I talked to him, I’d say on a quarterly basis, just giving giving updates on.

where I am in my career and how his teaching career is, because he’s still a professor at IU. I’ve come in to try to give back to him and speak to his class, but he’s given me more than I can ever give back to him. And whether it was just knowledge and strategy on how to do things, that’s one piece, but also it was the encouragement, like, hey, man, you can do it, right? If you don’t hear from anyone that you’re able to do something, then it’s a hard task to swallow.

at this age, but having him in my corner really, really helped catapult my success.

Michael Stansbury (09:46.243)
Right.

Michael Stansbury (09:50.657)
Okay, that mentorship, especially the first mentor kind of broke you in. completely get that. then you saw the value of mentorship right away. And that’s what you’re doing now is as a real estate coach is there’s, I always tell people there’s two types of mentorship. There’s mentorship that you pay for and I’ve paid, I’ve been part of really great masterminds. I’ve been coached individually by people and I’ve paid them a lot of money, but the ROI from it has been almost exponential. I don’t want to say three to five or 10 X.

Micah White (09:59.663)
absolutely.

Michael Stansbury (10:20.56)
and just say, like, it not only made me more profitable and made me more efficient, but it also made me a sharper real estate investor and a better human being. Is that your experience?

Micah White (10:30.968)
Absolutely, absolutely. You know, I’ve done both as well. You know, I want to call him a free mentor, but that’s just really a friend slash member and person in my life that is is chosen to help me. And then also the paid mentorship route. And, know, both both I’ve seen tremendous growth, right? Because my I’m a I’d rather miss the bus running type of guy. Right. And, you know, if I can soak up as much as someone who’s 20, 30 years or even just

you know, five, 10 deals ahead of me and just soak up what they’ve learned in that timeframe in, you know, in a two hour conversation. That’s no money aside. That’s exponential return right there. Just all that experience that, you know, they have to offer, they have had to offer me.

Michael Stansbury (11:17.196)
Yes, yeah, absolutely. And so what I tell people is this and you’ve experienced this is that there’s always a learning curve to everything in college. You went to college, I went to college and I’m not devaluing college because I got my degree there, but I will tell you this. You know, when I had one on one mentorship and saw somebody actually doing the thing and showing me, was like, my eyes were open. I can do that if it’s repeatable. so and it just made the biggest difference in the world. It’s it’s, know, in college you’re talking

Micah White (11:38.68)
Yep.

Michael Stansbury (11:47.073)
about theory a little bit more and maybe there’s some instances where you can actually put it into practice but with this you know with real estate mentoring and coaching you know you can talk to somebody and they can tell you the origin story of their deal and it just it fires you up.

Micah White (12:01.816)
Man, you’re firing me up, Mike. I gotta get out of my chair. No, absolutely. I 100 % agree.

Michael Stansbury (12:05.548)
Yeah.

Yeah, so the real estate coaching and so tell me about Michael White like outside of real estate kind of what are your habits and hobbies? have a family? You know, what do do in Chicago? Are you a Cubs fan, White Sox fan? Do you care about baseball or football? What does Michael White look like there?

Micah White (12:23.416)
Oh, absolutely. I mean, any 20, any 25 year old man in a big city, you know, that that I would say that’s who I am. I love hanging out with friends. Good, good food, good drinks in Chicago. I love the love the nightlife here in Chicago. And, know, I got a shout out. an Indiana guy. I’m from Indianapolis, Indiana, born and raised. So I got to shout out my pacers. You know, we just put the Knicks away. So sorry about all the…

Michael Stansbury (12:40.878)
Okay.

Michael Stansbury (12:45.944)
They, yeah, that was pretty cold-blooded of Halliburton to dress in black. That was, that said something to me about his moxie or whatever the kids, the kids say aura these days, I guess. So, but that said something unbelievable. And I guess that, that is, that’s next level. That’s not trolling.

Micah White (12:51.063)
Nance.

Micah White (12:56.428)
Yup. Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (13:10.188)
That is, know, Michael Jordan, I grew up in the 90s, basketball in the 90s, of course you know who Jordan is. But he wouldn’t do something like that. I don’t think he would, because they just didn’t, they didn’t have social media back then. But if they did, that’s exactly what he would do. He would dress in black, and, people knew what was coming. So it’s been a fantastic series, and looking forward to seeing what they do in the finals.

went to school Indiana, your pace was spanned, but you’re living in Chicago, Chicago’s home for you now. Okay, cool. And so, what is the progression? You’re a real estate coach now, what is your vision for your real estate portfolio? What do you wanna look like? Let’s fast forward to 15 years from now. What…

Micah White (13:46.764)
Yes. Yep.

Michael Stansbury (14:06.094)
would be your vision for MICA 15 years from now.

Micah White (14:09.634)
Yeah, that’s a really good question, Mike. I think I think about this every single night before I lay my head down to sleep. So, I mean, what I want to do and what my business partner and I want to do is build an empire here, right? I mean, we really believe in the market, Chicago as a whole, know, access to it getting long, long term here, access to fresh water is going to be a really important piece 20, 30 years from now, in my opinion. And, you know, this is Chicago is a place where you can get

A true city feel huge skyscrapers a lot of density but for you know Midwest pricing right which is which is hard to find in you know not comparable to New York or the LA’s of the world of the states but yeah we truly feel that you know we can grow an empire here in Chicago and I’m not gonna put a number on it just because I truly feel that the sky’s the limit you know until until my lady says that I gotta stop then I’ll stop but

Until then, I think just keep moving forward and my business partner and I are aligned in that. And we just want to grow it as big as it can be and help as many people as we can.

Michael Stansbury (15:15.63)
All right, cool. Well, I always tell people, you want to have all that ambition, but one of the things you want to tie to it is something that you can look at every day. So you have the same problem I do. like, you know, I dream big and that’s a beautiful thing. think the creator of the universe put it in our hearts to have big dreams because that’s just the way he made us to go produce and have dominion. But the power of actually looking at, okay, this is what I really

want it to look like in 15 years kind of makes it real now and so I would encourage you just to just to explore that a little bit but Michael where can people if they think hey man I need a real estate coach in in Chicago where can people find you at work where you add on all the socials what does that look like

Micah White (15:48.962)
Mm-hmm.

Micah White (15:56.685)
Yeah.

Micah White (16:01.08)
Yeah, absolutely. Instagram, Facebook, my taglines in real estate with Micah. TikTok is invest with Micah. So you can find me on all those platforms. And then also, I don’t know, I can give you a link to my landing page for people to click on and go to. that should give you a full step by step idea of what I’m here to offer and what I can provide and how to take that next step and get started with me.

Michael Stansbury (16:15.149)
Yeah, sure.

Michael Stansbury (16:27.008)
All right, well, Micah, thank you for being on the Real Estate Pros Podcast. Folks, check out his information. It’ll be in the show notes below. Thanks again for watching. Remember, do all the things, like and subscribe, comment, do all the things that the influencers tell you to do when you’re ending the podcast. We’ll see you next time. Thank you, Micah.

Micah White (16:44.578)
Thank you, Mike. I really appreciate you having me. Take care.

Michael Stansbury (16:47.619)
Yes, sir.