Multifamily Investing In Northern and Southern Illinois

[Linh Khuc]

Hi All,

I'm from Western Suburb of Illinois and have been actively searching for multifamily property to invest and hard to come by a reasonable pricing, still have some meat in the bones to invest.  I've been expanding my search to further North and South Suburbs including Rockford, Peoria.....found some properties in Peoria. 

Rockford and Peoria is about 1-2 hrs drive from where I'm living so I need a property manager if I decide to invest in those areas, overview of Peoria is class A, average rent is $800, unemployment is ~ 9% compared to typical ~6% of Illinois.  Rockford is class B with average rent is $770 and employment is ~10%, median income from both areas ranging from 40-50k/year, data is based on bestplaces.net.

Overall numbers, unemployment, income, rent....are not as good as the western suburbs so I'm debating should I stick to the western suburbs or move out to those areas ?