:)I'm down in Venice (have lots of friends in Thousand Oaks) and I love fitness.

This is a 3 bedroom  bathroom 1218 sq ft home in Oak Park IL full basement 2 story home price is somewhat negotiable.

Also just to let you know, The more you go into the argyle area and closer that you are from oak leaf , the more you will pay for a house due to the great schools and the new neighborhoods. 

Find a spot that is cracked/chipping (shouldn't be too hard if they do have lead based paint), then rub the tester on it...https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/3m-instant-lead-...

Look up Oak Trust Properties.

One last thing to consider is that this really only works if at the end of the 10 years, you are willing to cash in your chips and move somewhere cheaper. 

If you find that a lot of these things haven't been updated in a long time from the inspection, you can use that as another bargaining chip to get the seller to reduce the amount since you're going to need to update them at some point in time.

   So I pushed the chips all in, and I left my comfortable union job in favor of a position at a commercial brokerage as a salesperson making only commission.

A trashed house in Oak Park might be a much better bet than a similar property in North Highlands.

They are east of the city - White Oak to be exact.