A plethora of new hotels have been completed or are in the works in the city, including three new projects planned at O’Hare International Airport and the first-ever hotel on Navy Pier.The trade, transportation and utilities sector added 10,800 jobs, up 1.2% year-over-year.

Transport and set up are where the costs are.

We think it's a market that will look a lot better in 5 years as it gets easier to commute into Philly as transportation gets easier. 

I don't have much experience with major renovation projects, so will stay away from that for now, but that seems to be where money can be made.Also worry about the demand when going further west and/or south, but it seems the key to make sure you're close to major transportation lines from what I've read/heard.Yeah, there are a lot of beautiful, historic buildings in NJ that just need renovation/upkeep. 

The proximity to entertainment, transportation, walking distance to dining and shopping makes it even hotter.  

There’s so much money in that area that it just isn’t common and has limited public transportation opportunities.

We're not a big public transportation hub down here in the south, so everyone has cars and we drive everywhere...living a few more miles away from town, is just not as big of deal as it is in other parts of the country.With all that being said though, if you can buy it for $130k....it's probably worth it.Good Luck,Jay

Unless your 16 hours does not include travel time and if that is the case then you are spending more than 16 hours each week doing this; If we again stipulate you have some really time efficient transportation and can get between your properties in ten minutes by whatever best fit routing method you desire; And if we again stipulate you can handle absolutely anything at the property within 50 minutes; If we also stipulate you spend no more than one hour each week at the hardware store, paint store, county offices and courthouse; And if we assume you want to get to each of your properties at least once each month; Then the maximum number of properties you could have is 60 with you visiting 15 each week.

It's actually only the 7th biggest job sector in the Columbus metro area (think instead of education, government, healthcare, business services, utilities, transportation, etc):https://www.clevelandfed.org/en/newsroom-and-events/publications/metro-mix/columbus/mm-201911-columbus.aspxIt also doesn't feel like a rust belt city.

There are also always ways of going to the city planners and researching new future transportation projects (highways,roads, etc).