Hello BP Community,I have  been a BP lurker for many years and after falling out of love with retail real estate- I am oh so READY to get into investing (my first true love).

Be mindful of the harsh winters and short construction seasons, which can affect project timing.

As Nick said, just confirm prepayment penalties for your loan type in case you want to refinance.In IL, duration of prepayment penalty is limited so the penalty can be higher at times

I'd highly recommend house hacking in your local market since you're in one of the highest cost of living areas in the US, especially if you're renting currently and planning on staying in the area for 5-10 years.It sounds sexy to go out and invest out of state for your first property.

We don't have much capital to work with outside the equity in our current home, but should be able to come up with first/last/deposit on a rental without selling.  

First, as someone else stated, if there was a keyed lock on the BR door, either you provide the tenant with a key for it, or you disable the locking mechanism, or you replace the entire handset with a standard bedroom set.

Personally, I advocate for a long-term investment strategy and would recommend investing the funds, provided you are comfortable with the expected return on investment over time.

First Solar has been developing most of the projects there, about 500MW, worth over $500M, so far with more coming on line soon.

These people don’t have the time to do it themselves.

I would suggest that you first get pre-qualified with a conventional lender to see if you qualify for a conventional loan based on your DTI.