I was aware of the pension issues Chicago had, but this is terrible.Given the "historic underfunding of pensions . . .

I thought at first someone from the Historical Society wanted to preserve it.

Interestingly it looks like the historic norm is more of a 0.0625%(ratio of price = 15*annual rent).http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/business/economy/16housing.html?

Ok, you buy a bunch of index funds and hold on as the market returns roughly 8% historically.  

I did this because I felt that on average, I was likely to see the historical ~11% returns that market indexes return.  

It was in a historic neighborhood but the house was funky and had foundational issues, mold and obviously a roach infestation.

.*  If you've historically had more passive losses than passive income, then you weren't able to deduct the excess losses against your ordinary income, and your losses were "suspended" until you have enough passive income to be offset by them or until you dispose of that property, in which case the suspended losses are released.  

Downtown/historic area has many beautiful homes and multifamily properties - but it's a little trickier finding a really good property (i.e. that doesn't need a ton of work and is in a safe area).  

Beth has several SCAD rentals  in the historic district, which she self-manages.Thanks for the vote, Kevin!

The 30 year amortization provides you the cash flow and allows you to lock in historic low interest rates for the next 30 years.