Newbie living in Northwest Indiana Chicago Area

[John Carroll]

Hello,

My name is John and I currently live in Crown Point, IN which is an exburb of Chicago. I found this community after reading, "The book on Managing Rental Properties" which led me to the Bigger Pockets Podcast. I've since read a lot of books but it's time to get up and get out there I feel like. 

I'm interested in multifamily homes and making my first purchase. I currently have ok credit around 690-700, a well paid full-time job, VA home loan options for house hacking although I currently live for free in my parents 2nd home. I have experience house hacking a 6 bed house I subleased when I went to school in Orlando but my current local market doesn't seem to have much of that. I don't have much cash on hand since I've been paying down debt, school loans, and maxing out my 401k. But, I do have about 10-15k in available credit and could save cash fairly quickly if I needed to.

Currently, I've been looking for deals where I could rent out units and leave one occupied by me as my official primary residence to satisfy the VA loan and refinance after a year to rent them all out. One of my concerns using a VA loan is paying full retail for a property because it needs to be in good shape. Plus, the one unit would just be a crashpad and storage for an entire year not making money. My job is 100% travel I really don't even need a home beyond storage really which is the funny thing.

Another idea I have since I have friends and family in Orlando, FL (here now visiting as I'm writing this) is doing long distance college house rentals there. I've also considered a job transfer to Orlando since my job just requires being by an airport but I feel the Chicago area has more opportunity and I lose my free house. My job has been asking people to relocate to the California Bay Area for a raise but that seems like a ridiculous market I don't want to touch.

If anyone in Northwest Indiana / Chicago Area has any advice on the multifamily market or has realtor suggestions please feel free to share. Willing to hear feedback on my situation and thoughts also on long distance rentals for my circumstance. I'm wondering if I should just forget the VA loans, long distance, and just save up and BRRRR a house near me.

Thanks for reading my long intro. I look forward to getting to know more of you.