Plus, you get AMAZING appreciation potential here due to how fast the city is growing.

.✅ Hands-On Experience – If you plan to grow your real estate portfolio, managing tenants yourself can teach you valuable lessons about leases, maintenance, and local rental laws.✅ More Control – You’ll personally handle tenant screening, rent collection, and property upkeep, ensuring everything is done to your standards.✅ Stronger Tenant Relationships – Being involved directly allows you to build rapport with your tenants, which can lead to better communication and longer leases.Cons of Self-Managing❌ Time-Consuming – Dealing with maintenance requests, late-night emergencies, and tenant disputes can quickly become a second job.❌ Legal Risks – Chicago has strict landlord-tenant laws.

It seems that often when companies acquire large books of business in one shot there are growing pains and unfortunately those are felt at the client level.

As you grow your portfolio, they can help you secure additional funding, refinance existing loans, and adapt to changing market conditions.Financing doesn’t have to be a roadblock to your real estate dreams.

You might also look into learning about BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat), a popular method for scaling a portfolio.Network Locally: Engaging with local investors and attending meetups in markets like Dallas or Fort Worth can provide insights and connections that are invaluable.You'll find that momentum grows quickly.

At R&H Capital, we’re always looking to connect with other investors, share insights, and collaborate on new opportunities.I’m excited to be here in the BiggerPockets community, where I hope to learn from fellow investors, share my experiences, and build meaningful relationships to grow our real estate ventures.

I'm seeking to be in an environment with like minded individuals to learn and network to grow my portfolio and eventually network to collaborate on larger deals once I have a better understanding of the commercial side. 

Choose a goal so ambitious it forces you to grow into the person who can achieve it.

Meanwhile, staying put and letting your equity grow naturally might be the simpler, less risky option for now.At the end of the day, this comes down to your cash flow.

@Mickey Petersen Like what @Alex Olson said, a 1031 exchange is a great way to diversify and further grow your RE portfolio.