Chicago code is that EACH habitable room must be at a SUSTAINED temerature of 68 degrees F during the day and SUSTAINED 66 degrees F at night.

Even if you are holding the cash on the sidelines while you look for a deal, you still are better having access to the cash instead of having a fat balance sheet.

And along the way sell some apartments and pocket those fat commish checks I sold a 5 mil one a few years back and that was a smooth 100k in my jeans for a couple weeks of scouting finding and following it to the close..

The last thing I would want is to have a property break even with no fat to skim as a contingency. 

Save the money for a year or two and start looking for a "fat pitch."

My hope is that all the soccer moms (and dads) go out of business and I can get their 6 deals a year too.For everyone that goes out of business someone replaces them.. its takes a big fat economic recession to winnow the licensed agent pool. 

We're seeing pricing vary drastically even just going 20 miles south of the city just because everyone is so "fat and happy" with work.

Trim away as much fat as possible (like trading down in automobile if at all possible), stop dumping money into the 401k for a while, and try combining your desires to buy your own place and invest in real estate by "house hacking," where you live in one of the units of a multiplex while renting the others.

What could make a deadbeat hillbilly happier that sitting on their fat butt; smoking a cigarette; working on a case of Bud; all of the while watching their 120 inch big screen TV - ALL PAID FOR BY THE TAXPAYERS?

Solution:oStop dipping your toe in the water and go ALL IN on one marketing channel (in case you are wondering, Direct Mail is my bread and butter when it comes to finding motivated sellers).oMake one channel Fat, Healthy and Producing Leads first.