Newbie from IL area looking for the first deal

[Rus I.]

Hi everyone,

My name is Rus and I'm from west suburbs IL area. I started my journey from reading Joshua's and Brandon's book and very glad to be here.

Me and my wife were planning to buy our own property next year (currently renting) somewhere in Plainfield, Naperville, Aurora or Orland area, but now I realize that I want to invest and build my portfolio. For us, the most attractive looking strategy would be house hacking, however, there are very few of them in good neighborhoods. So I was thinking maybe we can build our own duplex and live there for a few years, at the same time we would be qualified for the FHA load. Could someone walk me through the process(new construction) from the high level please? Also, what are your thoughts on buying/investing nowadays, with the given economic situation?

PS: English is not my primary language, sorry for my grammar and any typos.

Thanks!

[John Warren]

@Rus I. welcome to the forums! You are running into the big issue everyone in the far west suburbs runs into... there are very few 2-4 units that far west. A lot of investors move either closer to the city (East of 294) where there is inventory, or further to Aurora or Elgin. 

As for building a new property, I doubt you will be able to do it for a price that will make it a good investment. A lot of 2-4 units in the Chicago area are selling for less than replacement cost which means that they wouldn't make sense to build new. This is actually a good thing as you know that in the B and C class areas there won't be more inventory coming online in the near future to compete!