Looking to invest in the Chicago area

[Kashif Khan]

Hello BP members, I am new here and have been an infrequent visitor on bp for the last year or so. I am looking for advice and guidance on how and where to invest in the Chicago area. I currently do not own any income properties. Looking to play around with $200K - $300K. With my budget, how can I best leverage my investment for income? What kind of income should someone with this kind of cash generate from investing in rental properties? I am seeing mixed information, some say buy multiple single family homes, some say buy apartment buildings. Is it reasonable to expect to take home 5K - $7K with this kind of money? What value properties should I be looking at if I have cash $200k - $300k. As you can tell, I am looking for general and specific advice/guidelines. Any and all information will be appreciated. Happy to share more if you have questions. KK

[Crystal Smith]

Originally posted by @Kashif Khan:

Hello BP members,

 Looking to play around with $200K - $300K. With my budget, how can I best leverage my investment for income? What kind of income should someone with this kind of cash generate from investing in rental properties? I am seeing mixed information, some say buy multiple single family homes, some say buy apartment buildings. Is it reasonable to expect to take home 5K - $7K with this kind of money? What value properties should I be looking at if I have cash $200k - $300k. As you can tell, I am looking for general and specific advice/guidelines. Any and all information will be appreciated. Happy to share more if you have questions.
KK

If you're able to leverage other people's money (OPM), i.e. bank loan or private money, then yes you can achieve 5K to $7K per month over a period of time.  Your cash becomes the downpayment. Really doesn't matter if it's single-family homes, small multifamilies or apartments. I don't advice jumping into large apartments as your first investment unless you do it working with someone or a group that has experience. 

If you're unable to initially qualify for a bank or private money loan it's still possible to achieve your goal but it will require different strategies.  You can't purchase enough assets with only $300K of cash to throw off $60K/year ($5K per month) of cash flow.