Once they get used to it they will never want to write a check again.  

I haven't hit it hard yet this year,  trying my hand at pre-foreclosures.I don't use a CRM, I'm hand writing letters and reaching out according to a criteria I dictated.  

I love that you have specific goals for 2025 - I believe if we think it, write it, say it, and share it our goals are 10x more likely to come to fruition.Are you able to do option 2 and just house hack a 2-4 unit building and use a renovation loan which allows you to put down 3.5-5%I highly suggest getting to some local chicago meetup groups (we have an in person one on the 17th)...here is BPs list: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-real-estate-events-...I also have a full list of the chicago meetups that I can share with you too if that'd be helpful.

If you want the exact process you'd need to speak directly to the planning/zoning dept and specifically ask them these questions to outline the exact process for this property. 

To be honest, I´m in the Maintenance & Construction for corporate businesses for some US companies in Mexico and we do some Real Estate down here also, but it´s way much different than the US, so I have much to learn from a lot of people around here and as @Julio Gonzalez, I think this is pretty much the right pad and place to start and to break my fears to start all over again from scratchAlso, I´ld like to hear more from @Justin Brickman why he voted for his city, pros and cons, it will help to read from a local...As I said before, thank you all guys for taking the time to write in this post and share some experienceDo you plan to owner occupy. $40k will not get you a non owner occupied San Diego property unless you find some unlikely alternate financing.

You can probably start the education process at 17, then apply for your license once you turn 18.

I am out of state and the only way that I feel that I can get people to walk through the properties are if I find them on market and have Shawna write up the offers. 

All this just to hopefully cashflow a few hundred $$ a month, doesn't seem worth it.Lately, I am really leaning on just investing in REIT's like Realty Income (o). as I write this Realty Income is at $57.75 paying $0.264 monthly dividend.  

I call the process "thinning the herd", and each year I evaluate the property performance and either take actions to increase the individual property performance or sell the under performer. 

While I would like to add an ADU  I do not have the time for the permitting process.