Retitling a property to an LLC - Chicago

[Kyle Kulhanek]

Hello - I'm new to Bigger Pockets, excited to get my real estate investment journey going.

I own a Condo in Chicago with a friend of mine (split 50/50), which I've lived in for about 5 years. I'll be moving out, and turning it into an investment property in a few months. We're looking to transfer this into an LLC for liability purposes.

From what I can tell, the best way to do this is to retitle the property, pay Chicago's expensive retitling tax, and set up an operating agreement, all of which likely requires a real estate lawyer (what $ base do we use on the tax, given we aren't selling it to ourselves, just transferring it?). 

Any advice for the best way to go about this, and save any $ on the process would be helpful!