Prioritizing Rehabs in Chicagoland

[Garrett Ott]

Good morning! 

I’m closing on my first small MF property this week or so! While I’m very excited to finally get started investing after searching for months, I still could use some guidance. My hope is someone can help align my mindset of what would be best for the long haul.

Here’s where I’m having trouble. The property has quite a bit of work to be done. Naturally I want to fix EVERYTHING, but it’s just not practical. So, I’d like to make as many fixes as possible before tenants move in (I’ll be living in basement) while sticking to a rather small budget of 10-15k. What do y’all think is most important/urgent to fix vs not so important.
Here’s what I got: 

-3 water heaters need replacement (1 is immediate due to leaking)

-small leak in basement but there’s a floor drain (waterproofing quoted $8500)

-missing roof shingles (roof itself ~12 yr old)

-12 windows on main floor do not open and need replacement as well as 2 in basement need to be changed to egress

-some tuckpointing recommended due to minor efflorescence (quoted $400-650)

-considering installing electric baseboard heaters to separate heat (whole building currently on one boiler)

-various minor electric fixes (GFCI outlet changeouts, couple outlets with bad grounding, etc)

Please let me know what you think! It’s been driving me nuts not knowing where to start or what’s best to start on. Appreciate any and all help, thank you.