This fire, these homes, these people, hard pressed to find anyone getting anything less than 7 figures, significant 7 figures.

Determining the cost on something like this is only something you'll be able to find out by talking to the city.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

I'm a pretty big advocate for the south side of chicago where you can find properties half that value and cashflow really really well in turnkey condition. 

That should tell you all you need to know about your strategy to find best debt terms.

So, we require a nonrefundable Retainer Fee for 90 days of our time to find a rental property.

I obviously have no way of verifying whether you own the asset or not, but find it odd that you'd throw away years of attempts at building your reputation and leave BiggerPockets rather than simply shut Melanie up by stating that you own the thing. 

Meaning, if you find something similar/somewhere else (in another market) closer to $300k, you'd be interested.

My professional background is data science / analytics, which means analyzing cash flows will probably come more naturally than building relationships, which apparently, is how one finds deals worth making.Are there meetups in these areas I should attend (digitally at first, presumably)? 

I find that usually weeds out any problem guests.