@Kerry Hermann We got our start in the western Chicago suburbs as well but are now totally focussed on The Shoals.

Lenders or investors who have short lock up periods but have years of experience feeding their business with new capital would give me more comfort but anyone who is just starting and is promising a rate of return or return of capital in a set period of time would be alarming because they very well could be reliant on fresh capital to make good on that promise and that usually ends poorly.

REI Central is Thursday night of this week (2/6), and there are a few other local meetups as well. 

If you can find an investment that pays for itself, you won't be so nervous about investing.I also recommend you educate yourself on how to manage well.

I've brokered a number of 1031 transactions and can help with that as well. 

You'll quickly learn how to manage investments well, which property types and neighborhoods work best, and more.

I bought a washer and dryer from ShinePay with their spark installed in 2023 and it was working well for a year, but one day it just said my account was deleted without any warning.

Saul, Phoenix and Vegas are popular markets, but I’m not sure they’ll actually cash flow well with today’s prices and interest rates.

For similar reasons you mentioned with access to both I70 and I90 pretty easily as well as being in range for the eastern sea board makes it a logistics hub.  

best of luck. i would network in that area and go to as many meetups you can and learn the area well