My advice would he to find a local attorney that is also barred in IN (which should be prevalent because you're in Chicago) and a local accountant you trust.

It's very prevalent when you see many houses (almost tear downs, but livable) built in the 1940's with numerous code violations and right next to them are new builds in 2017 or 2018 while the appraised lot values are doubling each year.

For Northern NJ where very high property taxes are prevalent, $9-$10k actually isn't horrible.As to your question about whether to buy the single-family or save some money and buy a townhouse, that would all come down to you, what you are trying to accomplish, how much you want to spend both upfront and monthly, etc..

Leaks still prevalent in pipes and refusing to fix them, contractors worker and his family squatting in my home without my permission, and lazy work done to finishes of the home.

I call comments like this "armchair anger," which is prevalent in our society.

It means that just because they are less prevalent - or even entirely absent in your market - doesn’t mean the needs for them aren’t there.

Yes there are termites in Michigan but not as prevalent / destructive as you get in the South.In our apartments we had a pest control company come regularly looking for bugs and once in a long while they would spot termite activity so we would go through a treatment. 

In low-income areas, pit bulls/rotweillers/german shepherds are prevalent because they are seen as weapons/protection, that's why they are chained right outside the front or back door. 

If you were to have transferred title without mortgage permission (such as with sub2), even that wasn't prevalent.

Due to the prevalence of scams I don't fault them for asking and would try to accommodate the request in a way which is reasonable but still protects your privacy.