I also knew Cook County was not in a landlord friendly area.

Hello I'm looking for a good investor title company and/or real estate attorney in the Sarasota area if anyone can recommend someone they have used. Must be able to handle all typical investor transactions (assignmen...

(You won't make any friends. 

Quote from @Gregory Schwartz: I have 2 very close friends who grew well beyond 2 rentals with this strategy. 

We’re in the exact same boat my friend.

(Especially a 2-4 unit.)Do they have friends/relatives/co-workers that would rent rooms from them if they bought a property to show more income?

We certainly haven't ruled out investing in Wisconsin, but we have friends and family that live in both CLE and CBUS, so we travel to those markets fairly often.

You've demonstrated success on your current duplex, so friends/family may be excitted to join in on the next.Congrats on the success so far,-Steve

The best way to navigate through all of these hurdles is to find an agent-friendly investor that is finding off-market deals solely for their clients

I'm an investor and a licensed mortgage broker who has done fix and flips both using my home's equity and borrowing against the investment property.If you (1) have enough equity in your home to fully fund the deals, (2) don't mind tying that equity up for these deals vs saving it for a rainy day and (3) are ok linking the place you sleep with the success of the flips, this could make sense.We offer a ton of different fix and flip programs including putting 10% down on the purchase price and funding 100% of the rehab.