You may want to consider reaching out to your State Bar's Lawyer Referral Service found here: http://www.illinoislawyerfinder.com/find-a-lawyerOr, alternatively, you can ask your Creditor's Bar Association located here:http://www.ilcba.org/There are two kinds of Debt Collection firms; large "captured firms" that handle only major clients, and then small shops who handle solo clients like yourself.

Account Closed I failed to mention that the benefit of fixing up the property by ~$15,000 isn't necessarily that rent increase of ~$200, but rather the forced appreciation that I could capture with a cash-out refinance.

I am a chef by trade, so have a thick skin.

This is a model we use in Arizona and it seems to work really well and it has allowed us to grow our portfolio with little of our own money into deals yet still increase net worth substantially with each purchase we make because of the equity capture of our total amount into the property verses the ARV when finished and refianced.

Thats what I want to see.That means I'm capturing about 40k to 50k in equity on every deal and my net rental profit is roughly 150 to 200/mo.But there are times when you'll go outside of that box.

But, most of the time, that's the only name I can capture to notify of my reply.

One of the things I capture is the first Craigslist day (it shows how long ago it was posted), and I include the latest day I've seen the ad.  

And you have 5 years to do it while still capturing that those tax-free gains. 

Offensive virtues are equity capture on the buy, rent, forced appreciation on the renovation, appreciation on the hold, principal pay down as the loan amortizes and the conversion of cash to a physical hard asset to prevent losing buying power as cash sits in an interest bearing account that is outpaced by inflation.

After buying my first rental property earlier this year and seeing how little work my agent had to do to receive her 3% commission (I'm sure that's not always the case but in this instance it was) I felt like the next purchase I would try to find a way to go my own and capture some of that percentage as a discount.So today I talk to a listing agent for a property that looks good on paper.