My immediate area, 5200 people, has 3 outdoor self storage and 1 new climate controlled.

We are a town of seven thousand but the city pulls in almost 100m a year from tourism alone.

As for your income, you need to talk to a lender that is licensed in your area.  

One more tip hit town homes and condo communities in the area.

Some areas don't fall under my criteria - Yonkers, Mount Vernon, and areas of Bronx to name a few.

At the time, we were new to the market and, admittedly, didn’t conduct thorough due diligence before buying.We purchased a property in the Atlanta area, renovated it, and listed it for sale.

Most times you can be pretty safe estimating an hour for this, but if your property is in a rural area or a heavily congested urban area with slow-moving traffic, you may need to be realistic about it taking longer.BTW: you should be realistic about a Service Call fee even for little jobs.

I didn't even realize they had originally purchased the parcel I have the tax deed to until the heavy equipment showed up which made me look closer at deeds for sales in the area and discovered my parcel listed on the other property's deed.This is my first tax certificate/tax deed so I'm not sure what comes next.

I own RE in the area and I can say its all a matter of what area you invest in.

Do you have a specific area of Chicago where you would like to live?