Hey Marcus welcome to the community, I work in the Kansas City area and could provide some value to your investing journey.

Where are you with the city required Certificate of Compliance process?

Verifying last 2 years of rental history and income extremely important to find the “best of the worst”.Make sure you understand the Class of properties you are looking at and the corresponding results to expect.The City of Detroit has 183 Neighborhoods we’ve analyzed.DM us if you’d like to discuss this logical approach in greater detail!

That being said, there is a rather diverse property and tenant mix within Allentown, like there is in most cities. 

There are wholesalers in every major city in the country and they are buying at 70% to 90% of value all day long, every day of the week.

In a city like Chicago, industrial properties are like ocean front properties.  

If you are familiar with VA investing, which cities do you prefer and why?

And even worse from out of city or state.My advice, do 1.

@Michelle Hardy Just adding, check your local city too for their requirements, many have specific requirements that the state may not have.Here in VT in the towns my properties are in, there is not a requirement to keep them separate or pay interest. 

You don’t want to fix symptoms without addressing the actual problem.2️⃣ Permitting Bottlenecks – The City of Chicago can be slow with permits, especially for structural work.