@Patrick Keene i hope you have narrowed down your search and are continuing to put the pieces to your puzzle together my friend.

Right now one big piece of this puzzle that I am struggling with is juggling work and my new company's startup.

Or if they don't seem well equipped to handle your questions or inclined to help you solve puzzles, reach out to a lender on BP.  

The only piece of the puzzle I'm missing is comps in order to establish my ARV.My questions are...Do I need to involve an agent in order to do comps?

I'm puzzled and something seems shady with her landlords activities.

If you could help clarify my puzzles on the topic, it’s will be greatly appreciated.

@David Lopez I always treat something like a jigsaw puzzle, pay to cesar what is due to cesar. the partnership you are into, needs to pay for your fees like you were a different real estate agent; if you were a general contractor, needs to pay for your GC fees; if you were a construction manager, get paid as a construction manager (rehab manager as you put it). remember not to put any "savings" on the numbers just to make it work, i.e. your target is 80% LTV, and you are at 82%, then you say to yourself, I will just discount the 2% from my RE commission.

The other piece to the puzzle is that if we don't sell one or several of the properties, buying a place in chicago is probably not realistic right now as I just don't have the cash for the price ranges of Chicago properties compared to here.

You have to work all pieces of the puzzle at the same time when you start out, and you will never have the complete picture of any one piece until you pull the trigger.Like @Cassi Justiz said, most HML can ballpark rates, but they may have lending tiers, so they cant finalize numbers until they see the numbers for a specific property.

I was puzzled about the different FSBO financing options and how would they affect the profits within different amortizations/ down payment/ interest rates etc.