First Time Investor - Rental SFH in Chicago suburbs

[Stanislav Perevozchikov]

Hi everyone. A long time lurker, hopefully a soon-to-be first time RE investor. I live in NYC and would like to get into REI. Given the sky-high prices in the area, I'm turning to out-of-state properties. I've looked at some SFH in the Hudson Valley area, near the commuter line in CT (Stamford, Bridgeport) and the prices are still too expensive for me to buy a house with a 25% downpayment. Now, I know someone who's invested in the Chicago area and the CoC returns are pretty good in certain towns (I'm looking at 30 minutes south of Chicago). My budget is around 30-35k max for a downpayment and I want to put down 25% for a better rate. It looks doable to get something in the Chicago burbs in the 120-140k range, so that even after taxes, management fees, future maintenance costs, vacancy, I'm left with 14% annual return. I don't expect the area to grow much or the house to appreciate, but it could be a good cash cow. Do you have any advice for me? Do's and don't's? Thanks!

[John Warren]

@Robert S. I am pretty sure that the large amount of properties for sale in Chicago is mostly due to the spring market and the new guidelines that allow us to show properties, conduct open houses, etc. Cook County has 5.1 million people in it, and Chicago sprawls well beyond just Cook into counties like Lake, McHenry, DuPage, etc. This is the third largest market in the USA, and there are many, many sub markets. I personally am in the process of selling a property in Indiana so I can re-invest the funds locally in Berwyn. I found Indiana to be business friendly, but the economy and renter pool were just so much less robust. NW Indiana is ok, but most of the bleed population wise is from the far southern suburbs. No one is abandoning Naperville, Evanston or Lincoln Park to move to Hammond or Gary...