@Steve Babiak, unless he registered with Pennsylvania as a contractor, he would not show up on there, the company as the OP stated is from NJ where he would be registered. he should be registered in PA if he is doing work there, so i agree, he should have shown up on those sites, i am a contractor in NJ but do not do work in PA, not even my own properties, so i do not show up on those sites.

I would recommend tuning into Straight Up Chicago Investor Podcast and going to local meetups. 

More than likely you would need to give up around 70-80% of equity and own a minority - some deals would allows you to buy it back at a set price as well. 

You have given great thought to the issues real estate investors face when deciding the if, the when, and the how of getting "deeper" into real estate ownership.  

Money has to come from somewhere so where will it come from.issue will be if they increase sales tax it will be regressive tax as those who rent and don't own and have low wages will still pay more for everything.

you are in the right place for learning . every day read as much as you can and soak up all the invaluable knowledge here on these posts .

In Columbus, you can still find the 1% rule and there's amazing appreciation potential due to how much population growth, job growth, and companies moving/developing there (recently Anduril just announced another 4,000 jobs coming to Columbus Ohio on top of Intel, Google, Amazon, FB, Nationwide, Ohio State University, etc.).

@Stuart Udis has hit the nail on the head.  

The photos online won't be of much use to you as the photos where the money spend is at are in the basements, attics, and the exterior of the house, and every corner of those if that helps.

Keep the current investment and buy another house hack to live in.