What's the best way to navigate this situation regarding the application process as well as the lease administration?

Everything went really well except for the fact that they sold the loan to a hedge fund before closing and the hedge fund's fees were added to the loanguys fees and it all added up quite a bit so I changed my mind at the closing table and used a private lender that is friends with the closing attorney. 

Three and four units properties tend to be slightly more investor facing, but there are still a lot of regular buyers that pick up three and four units as well.

Well, you can get them to sign a "Permission to Show" that will have the price they are willing to sell, and what your "wholesale" fee would be.

All well and good to dream big, but you need to understand the practicalities and probabilities of getting the deal to closing. 

I am hoping to learn more about how investors analyze their deals and make decisions, as well as looking to better understand general real estate investing.

Meetup.com is pretty good, I'd check out here on BP and facebook as well. 

Well there is somethings right here and some are off mark IMHO.

I will also strongly encourage accessibility for pets as well. 

It’s definitely exciting to see suburban Chicago getting recognition as a hot rental market—it’s something I’ve noticed in my own experience as well.