I also just put a 12,000 s.f. obsolete 3 story school under contract that I will convert into my 4k s.f. personal residence and a 4k s.f. construction workshop for my company.

Put in as wide a garage as the city will let you, with a 'workshop' on top, that could possibly get a variance for living space in the future. (~25k)Rent it out, and sell it fully rented to someone from San Francisco with a bunch of 1031 money burning a hole  in their pocket.

Be sure to check out the podcasts.Also be sure to check out the following local REIA groups.http://ntarei.com/This group has a general meeting once a month and hosts a lots of workshops for a small fee.

Hey y'all, I attended a real estate investing and marketing workshop hosted by Duncan Wierman a few weeks ago in L.A.

Since we hold workshops for investors, we see numerous of examples of missrepresented ARVs, conditions and sq ft.

They at the end of course tried to sell everyone a package deal for a three day workshop.

@Kendall S Jones The Chicago Bilingual Landlord Association offers workshops on various landlord/tenant law topics as well as 1-on-1 counseling:http://sc4housing.org/programs-and-services/landlords-and-renters/chicago-bilingual-landlord-association

Consider putting the time in a workshop or two on the subject.  

I too went to the workshop a few weekends ago; I just happened to find this site before going, so I went in knowing that I was not going to pay the 20k-50k.

This is a great area for cashflowing real estate for sure, check out the book Hold, and get the version with Linda Mckissack on it shes local and simply amazing (just did a workshop with her team out here last week) it's basically the strategy I'm using to build my portfolio.Feel free to reach out if you get stuck, see ya on the forums.Jeff