Just a suggestion for after you call or go in person - send the person a follow up email with a recap of what they told you.

Do you have any suggestions on how to go about this?

I would suggest focusing on solving people's problems more than trying to sell them.

I love that you have specific goals for 2025 - I believe if we think it, write it, say it, and share it our goals are 10x more likely to come to fruition.Are you able to do option 2 and just house hack a 2-4 unit building and use a renovation loan which allows you to put down 3.5-5%I highly suggest getting to some local chicago meetup groups (we have an in person one on the 17th)...here is BPs list: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-real-estate-events-...I also have a full list of the chicago meetups that I can share with you too if that'd be helpful.

Forget trying to walk them through a simple repair over the phone, to avoid sending a ServiceTech and saving an owner money.

  :) I think the simple answer is to just reach out to people.   81% of people only reach out to one Realtor. 

@Venka Pulla Many smaller PMCs are unprofessional, they can also be vindictive.So, suggest you get all the info you can from your Owner Portal before terminating them.Also, hire a new PMC BEFORE terminating the current PMC.Then, terminate and work closely with the new PMC to get tenant payments switched over and whatever documentation is missing.Hopefully, you'll screen for a new PMC better than you did to pick the current one!

In a simple way: you wouldn't go to the store and buy $100 in cash for $150.

Can anyone suggest Property Managers in the Columbia, SC market?

@Kareem Hammad With that amount of a down payment, I'd concur with @Julia Lyrberg suggestion about house hacking and expand from there.