I must disclose, this is difficult and time consuming to accomplish for multiple areas (cities or counties) so i'd start focusing on a single area in which you have interest in.

Your first park will consume a lot of time, so be prepared to be there often.

Be a voracious consumer of podcasts, read all the books on the subject, and go to as many meetups as you can. 

I’d love if there was some 3rd party tech that you could slap in there and figure out which unit is consuming so much water.

So the sweet spot for one carrying debt would be within the ten months of paying off the consumer debt to have a higher purchasing power and not having the credit score dinged by the closing of a line of credit

And, as Vincent said, Chicago is very tenant friendly so most landlords no longer take sec. deposits but instead opt for non-refundable move-in and/or move-out fees. 

I agree that consumer dept should be avoided but dept has been an always will be a useful tool to invest. 

Stay away from refined sugars of any kind and make fresh food you consume the day of making. 2 healthy meals a day is fine if you're not running a triathlon.Take long, slow breaths.

And honestly, managing your own portfolio is not very hard, or time consuming when you have a dozen or so properties. 

To echo what others have said, getting rid of time consuming, low cashflow SFH’s and rolling it into bigger complexes whether as a member of a syndicate or individually is definitely a better way to go.