Champaign Urbana for buy and hold

[Minh Hoang]

Hi. After reading a bunch of books, I have finally decided to invest in real estate and to make my first purchase soon. As places around me are way out of my price range, I'm looking into investing out of state, and one of the places is Champaign - Urbana. There isn't really a good reason for this, it's just that I have 2 friends getting a PhD there.

I'm hoping to buy and hold SFHs and duplexes in a good location for $50k - $175k. I'm pre-approved with a local bank for a conventional loan, though I'm exploring more options just in case. If a good BRRRR deal comes up, I can also get a hard money loan. But, honestly, I'm not seeing any distressed properties on the MLS right now.

Though, I have some concerns:

- Where can I find a good crime data source for Urbana? I have been looking at Crime Mapping for Champaign, but the site doesn't have any data on the Urbana side.

- How much of a hassle are the annual fees and rental inspections for Urbana going to be?