If so I would budget to have the whole house re-plumbed asap.

If we do buy in SF dream is still invest...just wondering if SF ownership will make that really difficult to achieve.

There was a fire one one half of the property, and the water damage extensively damaged the whole thing- total loss by my insurance companies standards.

My question seems dumb - should we risk to buy a 1.5-1.7M newer SF and to be bound to the mortgage forever and work our whole life to pay for it, or should we buy a SF around 1.3-1.4M which has much worse condition comparing with the above?

Also, please, avoid the whole guru scam.

However, I know some CPAs take the position that if you are getting it into a condition to be rented out, and it is rented out that calendar year, then it was in service the whole time.In regards to whether you can deduct your own labor, in general no.  

Hi Calvin - In addition to great appreciation, 8-12% cap rates consistently achievable in many parts of the South Side of Chicago.  

You should start with a general idea of price point and strategy, which should get you narrowed down a bit, then you'll want to look at job and population growth (City-Data.com) and get a feel for each of the markets, once you have selected a market you can go a bit deeper into sub-markets and unique details of the market as a whole.

May some of you out there refer me to a Lender that will get in touch with me and keep me updated throughout the whole process?

Know what the zoning is on the whole parcel as that will affect your price quite a bit!