Selling to the wrong buyer can become more expensive than carrying the home for slightly longer.I will buy my bath/kitchen fixtures at a plumbing supply house and not a big box store.

You're looking at this from the wrong angle.

You might appreciate, but most people who do this, have no strategy and also no oversight so things go wrong and they never know.

I am admittedly a newb in the process of getting all of this set up for my first rental (so correct me if I'm wrong) as well but I have some IL-specific perspective to offer: From what I have read, as of 1 Jan 2024 in IL, landlords cannot exclusively accept EFT payment of rents (includes Venmo, Zelle, etc.) for leases starting on or after that date.

Get it wrong and you end up owing them.  

My goal used to be to get to 100 properties but I realized that was the wrong goal.

Matt LawrenceCustomer Service Representative  not to be picky but you as a non licensed employee I don't believe can quote rates like you did in this thread that's a violation I could be wrong but again just sayin..  

Personally, I'm not interested in owning anything that doesn't cash flow at least $500 per month because there's just too many things that can go wrong in REI and I want the properties to earn their keep both in appreciation and in cash flow.

Is there anything wrong with me (legaly - he also bought the same stock and made 5x more than me) and is willing to take on cap gains as a thank you for me.

The majority of people are using AI the wrong way.