But it is more perception than not.

You don't just have to rehab real estate, you have to change perceptions of an area, and not just socio-economic perceptions, but the racial ones too, because, sad and as unfortunate as it may be, in Milwaukee race is identified with crime and 'sketchiness,' and property values reflect this in a very strong way.I was also just reading a real estate book by Brian Murray (he was on two of the podcasts, don't remember which), where he talks about 'buying on the line.'

Plus you have to compete with all the other buyers in the market, whereas looking at the development model eliminates lots of (not all) competition from less sophisticated buyers.Now before everyone flames me, I am generalizing, you might find distressed assets that have nothing to do with market conditions.

The issue with the size property you are describing, the owners are more sophisticated and tend to list with a major brokerage firm rather than go off market. 

 (2) for East Chicago, I see the drawback as being perception of area for financing.  

Subsequently I have seen how perception influences how people treat you.

Very rarely do investors (even the most sophisticated ones) do their closings without an attorney involved.Outside of that, Bill I think it's awesome you've gone at this so creatively and had such long term successes with it!

Commercial generally has more sophisticated investors with deeper pockets than small residential.

And because banks are more rigid in their lending decisions, underwriting standards, and overall loan terms, this lack of flexibility is another key factor that steers sophisticated real estate investors in the direction of private money loans.Although private capital tends to carry a higher cost factor over bank financing, many investors are more concerned with completing an acquisition successfully, particularly when a lot of due diligence and earnest money is at stake!

What I need is capital to speed this up and I was wondering if any of you knowledgeable people out there can suggest some practical (I have a medium level of financial sophistication) way(s) for me to raise money that is realistic for me to do in order to scale this up more quickly.Thank you in advance for your advice.AJ