I don't know of any area in the state north of kankakee even that you can rent a house - even a 1 one bedroom house for less than 1200 these days. 

For example, for my zip code in Melbourne FL, the 4 bedroom payment standard on the section 8 website is $1467.

for example a 4 bedroom 2 bath could work great as a rent-by-room, but would be much tougher to fill as a mid-term rental. 

I HELOC'd my 1 bedroom condo in Boston MA, took out $200K and used that as a warchest to expand my portfolio.

Try looking into zillow/Redfin and see what your potential rents you can get near the neighborhood by filtering the bedrooms/bathrooms of the intentional property that you are planning to buy.

Im selling a Charming 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom home in the heart of Miami With a tenant already in place, this property is producing great income from day one.

Let me explain that: plan your rehab to change the things that are going to add the most value to a property, such as adding a bathroom or a bedroom, making a little expansion.

We have a SFH that we are currently renting as two one-bedroom units.

Planning to rent the 4/1.5 side by the room and house hack by living in 1 of the 4 bedrooms then planning to also rent the larger 1/1 side.Planning 5% down as owner occupied financing. 

@Jarrod OchsenbeinYou have to divide the expenses using rental square feet vs. personal square feet or rental bedrooms vs. personal bedrooms.