My advice is to get into the STR world by finding something fairly close to you that you can keep an eye on and manage yourself.

Those books are definitely some eye openers!

Think abundance,Shoot me a DM if you want a second set of eyes on it.

But it does sound like there are good opportunities near those military bases, so keep an eye on those as you grow your funds and figure out what you want to do.As you get deeper into real estate, always keep the tax strategy in mind.

Keep your eyes open, define your goals for the investment you want to make and start looking at opportunities.

So a lot of the home runs are off the table before your eyes are on it.

It's a long list.Point is, there area lot more ways to make it happen in real estate than first meets the eye and some are more suitable for less hassle, some are more profitable, some are "out of the box" and less competitive to find.

To mitigate this, you might consider enhancing security measures, such as installing additional cameras or ensuring neighbors are aware of the situation and can keep an eye out for any suspicious activity.Learning from this experience, you might want to revisit your listing settings.

QuickBooks Online is just a better version of Wave, in my eyes, and I have 6 years Experience with it. 

I would also consider around the Illinois & Chicago Medical districts.