And the market will force them to do just that (remember, places WANTED to cut their profit margin in 2020 to court more business, but they COULDN'T, now they can), in fact it's already started, hence that class action law suit against Rocket Mortgage... when they went public in August 2020, they told their investors that the 2020 profit margin was normal and projected to continue.

Not surprisingly, this led me to class C properties. -- For this buy, I wanted 90%+ occupancy rates.

So, why not purchase something in the middle of that range you mentioned, in a working-class, up-&-coming neighborhood?

I'm looking at a property that is listed as a 2 flat; however when I went on the chicago zoning website, the zoning class is B3-1 which does not make sense since there is no retail currently.

Your $100k is your 25% down payment and hold back some initial reserves and closing costs...find the market that meets your criteria for a C-class value-add MF property, build your team (starting with an agent), and pull the trigger...long-term buy and hold...drop all profits back into renovating units and forcing rents higher...take advantage of your equity in 4-5 years and buy another one.

Obviously there were some caveats there... we didn't want F class properties, and we wanted them to be in at least descent condition.  

Further south into Brookpark and Parma, there are probably more working-class multi-family opportunities. 

Is the project a Class B value-add with minor improvements to reach B+ /A?

I wouldn’t lower the qualifications for your tenants, it’s better to wait for a class A tenant than rush to fill the vacancy.

They are first class for sure.