Hey @Sara Carter, we've helped a few people find lenders for a similar situation.

But the reality is most people rent these spaces, a lot of homeowners depend on this income. 

Personally, I've been investing more than 50 years and never looked at the demographics for a neighborhood one time because I always felt that you need more personal knowledge about the neighborhood e.g. whether it is blue-collar working people, whether it infested with gangbangers, what the ability to increase rents is, etc. and the only way to get a good feeling and understanding is to personally visit the neighborhoods in the daytime, evenings and on weekends because weekends and nighttime is when the bad people come out like cockroaches.

Just like some people prefer pick up trucks to cars or Chevy to Ford.

Not exactly what I want to hear knowing nurses are the ones that are helping people.

It wouldn't surprise me, though, since most people opt for the cheapest insurance they can possibly get and then are disappointed when the coverage sucks. 

If you're an experienced real estate investor living in or around Springfield, IL, I'm looking for someone to provide advice and constructive criticism of my ideas, plans, research, and goals with.

I chose the one with the most experienced due to the fact the neighbors were at risk too if someone who didn't know what they were doing tried cutting down the tree.

I was just blown away by a much more experienced investor telling me it would lower appraisal rather then raise it. 

Many people in this market are moving to mid-term rentals to get around the ordinance.