Some of you may have seen my other post about investing north of the river -- I'm wary about investing south of it, but I'm not totally closed off to the idea. 

@russell brazil,Is your referral, Upen Patel, with Federal Savings Bank? 

I had thought of purchasing an apartment for a long term rental, but wondering how to determine if an STR would work better.I assume you mean Windsor Park down on the South Side.  

Yakov Smirnov still performs just an hour south of you where he tries to warn you first hand of the dangers of the failed soclialist government of the former Soviet Union and why capitalism is so much better.

I just bought a foreclosure in South Florida I don't know if its connected to but I just filed for Homestead on the place and got this Real Estate Sales Verification Survey from County Property appraisers office asking me questions like.

Using the formula "rent - PITI = cashflow", it seems like a decent deal but using the 50% rule the deal goes south pretty fast.

REO home in South FL, decent neighborhood, decent house outside( built in 2008).

And btw - it takes longer to drive from the north side of Chicago to the south side of Chicago than it does to drive from Chicago to Laporte, Indiana.

From what I've seen going tile might be your best bet in the south.

North Park, and South Park have some places that I think can cash flow.