Rental Radius

[Michael R.]

I'm located in Cary, IL which is a suburb roughly an hour NW of Chicago.  The multi-family inventory is pretty low out here and I'm considering doing deals in Chicago, and various suburbs to broaden my scope.

For those of you who are full time W2 employees and part time investors/landlords how far from your place or residence do you generally pick up buy-and-holds?  Do you generally pick up units that have been recently renovated to cut down on repair frequency or are you still willing to take on somewhat "long distance" projects to maximize returns?

Thanks!

-Michael