Rental investments in Joliet, Aurora, Bolingbrook, IL

[MAHESH RAMACHANDRAN]

Hello REI Community

I am a newbie looking to build a rental portfolio and currently thinking about investing in rental properties in Joliet,IL,  Aurora, IL and Bolingbrook, IL. I selected these areas considering that these are sort of low to middle income areas and not too far from where I live. 

I have few questions for the REI community and would highly appreciate the community insights and input.

1) I have seen a few properties in Joliet, IL and they all need some work. Some have old electrical and plumbing lines and need drywall work too. An investor that I met a few weeks back mentioned that the city does not perform any inspections on single family residences prior to rehabbing.  The city is only concerned with multi-family units and does inspections to ensure that everything in multi-family is in compliance with code. I was a bit surprised with that comment. Is it true that one could get away with no inspections on single family distressed properties? For some of these homes, I am concerned about electrical and plumbing issues and would like to know typically how the city/village goes about evaluating these issues for a property that will be rehabbed.  Would someone with investing experience in Joilet, IL be able to provide some direction. While my goal is to do the repairs and rent the property instead of flipping it, I do want to ensure long term when I get ready to sell the property, it will not be an issue to have the old electrical and plumbing.

2) Would someone be able to provide suggestions on what areas/boundaries I should be looking at for investing in Joliet, Aurora, and Bolingbrook, IL? I realize that there are not too good parts in Joliet and Aurora, and I would like to know where these pockets/areas are located, or how to go about getting more info about this aspect. I realize I could get section 8 rentals and I have read about advantages of section 8 rentals, but I am not keen on getting into it now as I am just starting. 

3) Have people used neighbourhoodscout.com for getting info about a specific market, demographics, vacancy rate, and rents? How reliable/accurate is this info?

Thanks in advance for your time and help