As I can see there's still a lot to implement and quickly each and every "new thing" will create competitive advantage.

Home is in a good market with public schools and high demand.Option 1: Simply sell home, downsize and purchase a smaller home and invest spare cash (pros: hassle free and homes are getting top dollar in the area, cons: feels like there's a lot to be leveraged with the home and would be missing out on future appreciation to "keep property in the family")Option 2: Rent the home and take HELOC or REFI to take out equity for smaller home purchase.

There is a lot to it. anyhow i hope to learn from this site/forum.   

Fortunately despite the delays I was able to stay on the 30k budget for the most part, and at the end I decided to go a few thousand over to do granite countertops instead of formica and to do that nice mosaic backsplash so that the house would have a wow factor, which I think had a lot to do with getting it sold so fast!

There is a lot to learn and a lot to gain from the real estate business.

I'm sure you have a lot to share.

Chicago has a lot to offer in terms of housing supply and quality of life.

as they tought us, "shoot, move, communicate"     (the order is important)Yeah, I think the volunteer aspect has a lot to do with it.I’ve realized over the years that a lot of government (and I worked for the government) and military jobs are there...for the sake of employment and nothing more.

It sounds like true asset protection cost about $20,000 as an initial a set up which seems like a lot to me.

Im just starting out in my RE investing career, so I have a lot to learn.