New real estate looking for advice if possible.

[Kendall Moore]

Hi, everyone, I am new to the forums, I  have been reading a lot of other post about questions that I have. I wanted to make my own post. I have seen some consultants on post as well would love to connect to someone if willing to provide me with advice. I live in the Houston, Tx but I am originally from Chicago,IL. I am mostly interested in the Chicagoland area. I have searched the Houston area and not as much luck(I may be looking in the wrong area).

My goal is to hopefully start with multi-family no more than 3 units per property. Plan is to buy one property a year for the next 5 years. I want to hold these units for sometime and collect rental income. 

I am looking to buy a place and rehab.  Problems I am seeing in Houston, a lot of new construction and the numbers are not working due to the cost of the new units. Chicago has some homes I have come across low prices but may need a lot of rehab.

I am also looking into what pitfalls to be aware of when trying to do a rehab project on homes in major needs of upgrades in Chicago. Zoning laws permits ects. 

I am open to the price point of 50k-150k purchase plus about another 50K-100K for rehab. 

Would also like to rent out to section 8 tenant if possible. I have checked into starting the process but it seems as if you need to have the property to apply.  

[Travis Timmons]

Welcome to the party! My specialty is in short and medium term rentals, so my advice on multifamily is worth what you paid for it. I'm also originally from IL and now live in Houston. I'm familiar with both markets. If I had 200k and wanted multifamily I'd look in a secondary TX market like Waco, Bryan/College Station, Killeen, Abilene, Lubbock, San Marcos, maybe Corpus Christi. The price point is lower and there is a rising tide of home values in TX. As the major cities get more expensive, I see these medium sized cities continuing to grow in population and value. In the last 6 months, we've seen 3 friends (families with young kids) move to Waco or College Station on account of the lower cost of housing/living. That's a very anecdotal example but probably represents a growing trend. 

I have nothing to sell and am happy to help. Send me a message if you think that I could be a resource.