You are probably better will serve to invest in the Chicagoland market particularly on the southside where your cash flow margins and cap Rates are higher much higher.

I can't cashflow LTRs because I can't find them cheap enough with today's mortgage rates, so I'm looking for my next STR now.

But at times can be a good place to start to build up a portfolio and future cash for investment instead of waiting for your equity or the world to decide we can have low interest rates… which sounds like that’s what you are suggesting for me to do.

Commercial rates are lower for a user than an investor.

Im selling a home now that I hoped to roll the proceeds into a 1031 but everything is in limbo now because my bank may either kill the deal or charge much higher interest rates due to this error and lower than expect credit score. 

I’ll look into Lloyds of London for rates and terms.

I live very minimally at home currently, still with my parents, so I would only be spending about $350 a month total, including the loan (assuming I can get it for the time period I calculated, which is 3 years), so I would still be able to put aside about $11,000 for school, a car, and the downpayment for my first deal. 

This is because at the current rates, a high LTV property (which is required to extract rehab costs) bleed cash. 

Are they looking to pay STR rates?

.- in appreciation market with cheap money/low interest rate condition, flipping is much much better than renting.