Meanwhile, stack resources with a HELOC, savings cadence, and business credit/LOCs used conservatively.

For a KCMO midterm rental, pick a safe, hospital‑adjacent or corporate corridor building, confirm 90‑day minimums are allowed, and underwrite with conservative 30‑day stays.

Run you analysis, be conservative in your numbers, and make offers that make sense.

Use them all conservatively each month and pay them off.

Build a small pipeline: 5–10 leads/week, run a quick noise‑to‑numbers screen using rent, taxes, insurance, conservative vacancy and CapEx, and only dig deeper if it pencils.

Very conservative approach but worked for me.

The trade-off is that conforming 3- and 4-units in Chicago are tougher to find, and when they hit the market, they get scooped up fast.Non-conforming units can work if they’re safe, insurable, and properly disclosed — but make sure your lender’s on board, and underwrite conservatively (don’t count illegal rent until it’s legalized).A lot of my clients start with a solid 2-flat that has expansion potential (unfinished attic/basement) and build that third unit later.Happy to run through a few real-world examples or help you look at the math side if you want, just shoot me a message and we can talk it through.

If new deals in your buy box still cash flow conservatively with today’s rates and taxes, add one, but if not, focus on debt paydown and efficiency until they do.

Start with light rehabs to test your team, underwrite with conservative rents and full reserves, and only refi if the new payment improves cash flow and sets up the next buy.

In total, conservatively, the 196k will be liquidated for 340k.  144k in profit on 196k investment.