I have allowed them to do this for the past six months, and I haven’t really received a valid excuse or reason why it’s happening besides a simple “sorry.”

Simple things like this are why you hire a realtor.

I would suggest looking in Center Point, Fultondale, Roebuck, East Lake, or Ensley.

Any recommendations or suggestions for ways to negotiate this (and not lose our earnest money)?

Do you have suggestions on how best to do that research?  

I suggest checking out some of the local Chicago meetups:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-real-estate-events-...I'd also recommend setting up some coffee meetings with some of the TOP TALENT in Chicago: agents like @Jake Fugman & @John Warren and property managers like @Mark Ainley & @Krystyna Schexnayder and lenders like @Jose Valdovinos & @Zack Karp.

California requires an $800 for LLC's that are doing business in California.California law suggests that managing members of an LLC that are a resident of California are considered to be doing business in California.Normally people will suggest opening up the LLC in the state where you are doing business(Normally the state where the property is located at).Others will suggest opening the LLC in a different state such as Wyoming, Nevada or Delaware for charging order protection, business friendly case law, anonymity, etc

And finally, the profit gap can be low as these houses are sold for the median home priceWhat you guys can suggest/advise from your own experience?

I would highly suggest asking the following questions before sending ANY sensitive information: 1.

I'd suggest starting with multi-family homes.