Buy-and-hold in Chicago

[Cody Ray]

Hi. My name is Cody. I live in Chicago with my but I'm originally from Arkansas and my family still lives there. During the days I write code as a software engineer for a small-ish startup. At night I'm either training Muay Thai, playing trumpet in a new orleans band, or spending too many hours learning something new. The latest kick? You guessed it. Real estate. 

I'm interested in buy-and-hold rental properties. Why, you ask? Well, I'm getting married this summer and we're planning on starting a family in a few years, so I'd like to reduce my dependence on a full-time W2 job and build up a rental portfolio to cover our basic expenses. More generally, I just want to have a few more options on the table and multiple income streams by then.

Ideally, I would love to my first property to be a 2-4 unit multi-family in SW Chicago or suburbs (Bridgeport, McKinley Park, possibly Oak Park -- somewhere with public transit and preferably under 7 miles to downtown). Since this is my first, I'm expecting to use conventional financing and live in one of the units, especially with interest rates so low. Of course, a SFH or condo might be more do-able as multi-units seem pretty scarce right now (and those that are on the market seem overpriced for the rent they're demanding).

I joined BP to hear more from Chicago-local investors or find one that I could assist somehow and learn from.

Looking forward to learning from y'all!