During the Great Recession I found my two-story house which I had purchased from HUD for 72K was suddenly under water.

I live in California, and am looking to purchase my first rental property in Illinois.

One good way is to list the property if you have purchased it of course.

Which by the way, will still allow you to purchase more property and add to your depreciable basis that way.My two cents would be that it is a no win scenario trying to please a buyer with improvements. 

It seems like KW is the most expensive to purchase, but one of (if not) the most reputable.

My wife is an investor friendly Realtor as well, we'd be happy to help with any purchases you plan to make here.

(Unless that's your single unit price and then qualifying rents can push your Purchase Price up).On the other side of the river you'll generally be looking at $900k and up for a 2 unit.

G'Day Carlos,Personally, I think it's a recipe for disaster rehabbing from out of state.IMO you would need deep roots in the specific market you are looking at investing.Or years long experience of knowing the who, what and when in that specific market.I only know of a handful of folks that can do it successfully and even they have been at it for many years and probably still loose money on rehabs to this day, no matter how integrated they are with everything and everyone.A good resources for pre-purchase, during rehab and after rehab's is Inspectify.Always get eyes on site before buying a property or processing a progress draw for the rehab.Much success

I can have my management company pick it up, but they’ll charge about $90/hour plus add 10% to the purchase price.We live several states away, so doing it ourselves is not an option.

I recently purchased a new home with the lady and am hoping to turn my previous townhouse into a rental.