Welcome to America — And the Cockroaches!
by Ovidiu Catanescu
From the series “Our Early Years in America”
When I arrived in Chicago on August 19, 1984, Maria had already been in America for almost a year. She had left Romania on September 27, 1983, traveling through Holland, and now we were finally together, ready to begin a new life.
Our first American home was a subsidized one-bedroom apartment in a 26-story building on Marine Drive, near Lake Michigan.
The address sounded impressive. Marine Drive, Chicago, Lake Michigan! Unfortunately, the reality inside our apartment was somewhat less impressive.
Most of our furniture had either been donated or rescued from the street. We didn't mind. We were young, we both had jobs, and we were happy to finally be building our life together, free from the restrictions we had left behind in Romania.
There was, however, one problem we hadn't anticipated: cockroaches.
And I'm not talking about a few occasional visitors!
Our apartment seemed to be the international headquarters of a very large and well-organized cockroach association. They were everywhere, appeared out of nowhere, and showed absolutely no intention of moving out.
We bought insecticides and declared war.
Unfortunately, no matter how many we managed to kill, new reinforcements would arrive the following day. They probably came from neighboring apartments, through the walls, pipes, and every other available entrance.
One day, I opened a box of toothpicks and discovered that it was occupied by cockroaches. I let the cockroaches escape, took out a toothpick, and then, thinking better of it, threw away both the toothpick and the entire box.
We had reached the point where we inspected practically everything before using it.
But the event that would change our lives happened one night.
Maria was sleeping peacefully when suddenly she woke up screaming.
A cockroach was crawling across her face!
For Maria, that was the final straw. Her patience had officially run out. It no longer mattered how much insecticide we bought or how many cockroaches we managed to exterminate.
We had to get out of there!
And that is how our search for our first home in America began.
How to Buy a House When You Have Almost No Money
At the time, I was working at Allied Fabricating, earning $5.50 an hour, while Maria was making $5.25 an hour. Later, she would work as a design engineer at Singer Control.
We had very little savings, practically no established credit history, and almost no experience with the American banking system.
When we started talking to real estate agents about buying a house, our financial situation didn't exactly inspire confidence.
That was until we met John Diaz.
John was also an immigrant, originally from India, and perhaps he understood better than most what it meant to start a new life in a foreign country.
Unlike the other agents we had spoken with, John didn't tell us that buying a house was impossible.
He believed there might be a solution.
His idea was simple but ingenious. Instead of looking for an ordinary single-family house, we could purchase a property with several apartments. We would live in one, while the rental income from the others would help us pay the mortgage.
John introduced us to a banker who was willing to look at our financial situation as a whole, considering not only our salaries but also the rental income the property would generate.
Eventually, we found a property in a quiet Chicago neighborhood.
It was a classic Chicago three-flat, with three apartments in the main building, a separate coach house in the back, and even some additional land.
It already had tenants and, most importantly, a two-bedroom apartment where we could live.
The asking price was $96,000.
We managed to purchase it with a down payment of only 3.5%, while the rental income from the other units brought in approximately $900 per month.
For two immigrants just beginning their American adventure, it was an extraordinary achievement.
Thank You, Mr. Cockroach!
Looking back, I realize that sometimes the most unpleasant experiences in life push us in directions we would never have considered otherwise.
If Maria hadn't awakened that night with a cockroach crawling across her face, we probably would have stayed in our Marine Drive apartment a little longer.
Perhaps we would have continued saving for an ordinary house, never imagining that we could purchase an income-producing property.
But one cockroach accomplished what no real estate agent had managed to do: he convinced us that it was time to become homeowners!
And that is how our first real estate investment in America began—with a scream in the middle of the night.
Sometimes opportunities come from the most unexpected places.
Even on six legs!
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