Newbie from Chicago, IL

[Ray Southern]

Hi all,

My name is Ray Southern and I'm looking to break into the world of REI.

I've been a web engineer in Chicago for going on 15 years now, almost completely self-taught.

It's been a great career, but I need to start looking ahead to retirement.

I have no experience in real estate, except a condo I bought in 2008 as my primary residence, right before the market tanked.

I'm still in the condo, did some refinancing, and plan on keeping it for good (great neighborhood), maybe renting it out if I start a family and need to move.

My overall plan? I'd like to retire or maybe semi-retire in about 10 - 15 years.

I've been going through the BiggerPockets webinars, and hitting every online resource I could find for the last 2 months.

I've settled on trying to purchase a Multi-Family 5+ building on Chicago's SouthSide.

I grew up there, so I have some familiarity with certain neighborhoods.

I don't have a lot of capital, but I have an extremely excellent financial history with a high credit score and very low DTI.

Time to wrap up, don't want this post to get too long.

I'm looking forward to interacting with all of you on the site, and here's hoping I can make this work with your help.

Thanks,

- Ray