That seems unusually high unless the hurricane has roof contractors busy and created some artificial price increase lately.

Living in Chicago currently.Mainly, I am looking for advice relevant to how I can start saving intelligently so that I may begin investing in real estate as soon as possible.

Means a lot coming from a wily vet like yourself.I believe there was an artificial spike in post counts a few weeks ago.

Lots of cool and intelligent people to learn from, let's connect.

How could allocating tens of thousands of dollars in living expenses to someone else instead of me be intelligent?

wow thankyou so much for the in depth reply Scott, I've written the quote down and set it as my wallpaper on my phone so it's the first thing I see every day to keep me motivated, I've also just grabbed myself a copy of the intelligent investor (warren buffets most highly recommended books) I hope to learn a lot in the near future...JT.R, yes I intend on going to university to do a bachelors degree in either economics or commerce (accounting major) after I graduate from high school...

I've lived in apartments half of my life, have learned a bit about business in school, and I'm fairly intelligent, so I have a fairly decent idea of how to run a small complex on a very basic level (maintenance, pricing rent, etc.).  

Take some time to soak up knowledge, but don't let education be an artificial roadblock for you either.

To claim that they are not personally accountable for their decisions and actions is insulting to the intelligence of the viewer.

I spent over an hour talking yesterday afternoon and again this morning with "Ed" (Reed) and he's a very personable, knowledgeable and and intelligent guy.