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.

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.

Portage Park is definitely a prime-time Chicago neighborhood @Delroy Watson! 

Boy his staff was first class all the way. 

She needs to wait until each lease is up for renewal and raise them at that time. 

And it has been gaining recognition as a vibrant, desirable place to live, especially for younger professionals and first-time buyers. 

The first clue lies (pun intended) in this fragment from your friend's creative writing sample: ...I wanted to "sell" the rental house to a new LLC...Anytime you have to put a critical word like sell in quotation marks, it means that you're not actually selling.

We bought a house 9 months after our first offer once:)

Think of vehicles like the cyber truck where you need to sign up ahead of time to pre-order and so many people want it that the value increases shortly after they are released.

Any advice you would give to someone first starting out?