Some use family and friends or partner and give up a percentage of the deal.

@Shuvrajit Mukherjee - You have to be able to scrape that data from some where pretty easy...a lot of that property specific info is public record.There is a website called chicago cityscape...I am decent friends with the founder....it is sourcing a ton of data that might help. 

Pro:- it’s trained to look for safety risks, expensive repairs- within minutes analyzes entire disclosure packet of hundreds of pages- works as another set of eyes that looks for things you should be watching out for, likewise of a companion - great to quickly learn of property conditions from the actual documents while on the go (given that you still follow your own due diligence process)- beta is freeCons:- still in beta- can’t share report directly unless copy and paste- only core documents (home inspection, pest, roof, tds, hazard, solar) are supported but not regional specific disclosures like hoa- estimates it provides aren’t accurate- not mobile friendly 

I have a friend who owns 10 or so units near here so we are thinking of spliting some of the cost and combining all the units together.

Make a list of every place you have ever lived and where all of your best friends and family live and see if any of those markets overlap with "good" markets that you see on lists.

I live & invest in Chicago but recently have turned my head towards Northwest Indiana because of the landlord friendly laws, it's ridiculously costly in Chicago if you have to evict! 

They both work slightly differently, but are similar enough that a call to the tenants rep usually can get you on the right track to making sure you follow all of the guidelines.

Just my 2 cents, but given the location, I would assume other than a doctor with a young family or a group of 4 friends looking to live downtown. 

Or 1 single person +2 friends, etc.

A few months back, I worked with a friend who’d helped a first-time flipper in Jonesboro turn a crusty old single-family place into something that looked straight out of a design magazine.