Here in Cleveland landlords are not required to provide the appliances, but it is definitely encouraged and will tend to produce a higher level of traffic during the marketing phase, as well as higher rent points if they are provided.

And it's an hour away (without traffic!)

I drive all over southern CA (1,150 business miles last week), so do not have a good answer for traffic, other than using your navigation device or smart phone to watch the data from the Caltrans loops and trouble reports.

My gut feeling is that in such a competitive market you will have to really work hard to out-compete everyone else who also wants that organic traffic near you...

If you're looking to stay no more than 30 minutes from Streeterville with traffic, Cicero might be a stretch.

I go up to DFW every few months to visit my parents and traffic gets worse every time I visit.

Can you run traffic analytics with this setup?

Although, signing a lease beginning in June leaves me paying on the property without any cash flow for an additional 5 months, setting me back on any new potential properties (which I already have good leads on).The town that the home is located in is  nestled in the quiet corner of Connecticut and doesn't attract a lot of metropolitan traffic.

Anywhere else in the northeast just doesn’t capture enough year-round traffic.

With traffic as bad as it is in Seattle you really don’t want to house hack in an outlying area of it means a 1 hour commute- time is money, especially if you’re handy and can Rehab your properties yourself!