Some people need it as means to get the ball rolling.

Currently have no children except for the one 4 legged fur child.

I have done a lot of renovations here in the Chicago market, and I recently have installed water proofing and done mechanicals so these ball park quotes are what I have been paying. 

I will have more questions but this is just a quick post to get the ball rolling.

If it is hobby money or money you are willing to lose, then that is a different ball game than real estate investing.

Ball up!

My crystal ball is in the shop so I can only guess.Oildale is pretty rough but with the opportunity zone deal and Amazon moving in, it may turn around some.Otherwise, on the outskirts to the north or south, both areas will likely do well and the city grows. 

But I would also like to get the best deal possible and when I look at equity I feel that I should be offering around 140k but my wife and I really do want the house and I don’t want to low ball the seller too much.

You could analyze the property a few ways but that will only give you a ball park ESTIMATE.1st: You can just run your analysis and add the owner occupied space as additional vacancy.This is a good method because you are "not" collecting income so you are being very conservative in your expense estimate. 2nd: You can run the analysis and calculate the property as if it is rented and you will be receiving rental income.

No one has a crystal ball to predict what will happen and I wouldn’t let that impact your decision to invest.