How important is location?

[Elsa M.]

Hi everyone, how important is location when buying your first multifamily rental property?  I'm looking to house hack my first property, and I'm not sure if I should find a 2 or 3 flat in Chicago area where it's more expensive and what I can afford will definitely need more work then I would like, or buy a multifamily property is a suburb where I can find a property in better shape and perhaps at a lower price with a lower mortgage . I'm not sure what to do because wouldn't the Chicago property appreciate more over time and be wroth a lot more? Or is it a good idea to buy a property in a decent area that might not appreciate much at all but I'm getting somewhat decent cash flow?     

Thanks for the help!