I would be patient in general and not slash prices.

You can find that most places in the country.

There is a great group of us who invest in the NL area if your looking for some folks to connect with.Now to your question, you'll find rent prices vary quite a bit in NL depending on what area of NL, but I'd be happy to give you our averages.1, 2, 3 would average $1150, $1300 and $1500. 

As the 3rd largest MSA in the country it's hard to generalize the Chicago market as it's actually over 100 different submarkets when counting the 78 communities in Chicago property and then adding in the various suburbs, including in and around Naperville. 

The skill comes in sourcing deals that arent only on the MLS.

Not sure I'd recommend jumping straight into a flip, but if you're buying in cash you'll have less risk. 

Where in Detroit is this?

I'm not not interested in regular old notes :) But, I do like partials (I've done a few others).

These people are built to value add deals, you would have to look hard for these people in your market and probably pay them top end pricing to get your properties performing amazingly well!  

@Shaun Ng i own a title company in MI - and i am sure we could help you if you were here however, if VA is an attorney state then you can get help from a title attorney otherwise chat with a title company.