New Investor from Chicago, IL

[Jonathan H.]

Hello everyone,

My name is Jonathan and I recently moved to Chicago for a new job as an analyst in the investment management industry. I spend all day looking at public investments in the equity and fixed income markets, but am interested in real estate as an investment vehicle for my personal portfolio. I've read several of the BiggerPockets guides and think multi-family properties would suit my goals well. That being said, I am still very new to real estate as an asset class and hope to learn a lot more going forward.

Looking forward to chatting with many of you!

[John Casmon]

@Jonathan H. Welcome to BP! I invest in multis and agree it's a great asset class. There's a lot of talk right now about multis being on the bubble so do your homework here. Prices have been driven up in Chicago over the last couple years so finding a "deal" is a bit harder, but still possible. @Eric La Pratt has a good combination of live-in rehab and rental that may suit you well, especially if you can find an FHA qualifying property. However, given your day job, you may want to go big from the jump and look at a commercial buildings. You can invest in these directly or as apart of a small group or syndicate.