Hello, I am looking to get started in my Real Estate career by building a 3 Unit Condo complex on a lot that I already own in Chicago. 

Personally I think it's tough to say a "good or bad" investment based on the zipcode alone.

A referral fee is a not a bad way to go since you have a lot lower risk and it sounds like you might need to learn more before taking on a project of this size, no offense intended.4.

People who can afford deliberately stop paying mortgage to get out of bad investment. 

Like @Gene Hacker mentioned, many of the properties in those areas are in bad shape and bad neighborhoods.

If things go bad, I can always go back to driving trucks - not that I'm planning on stopping that anytime soon.

The problem with working with bad contractors is that they can delay indefinitely.

In my experience, and turnkeys are a large portion of my experience, the worst mistake I've ever made (and sadly made it more than once) was letting a bad PM linger too long.

Hard money is best for people in specific situations.1)Bad credit2)No source of W-2 income3)Little to no money to put a 20%-25% down payment on an investment propertyIf any of these are true, then HML may be the best way to go.

And one bad tenant can destroy a yard/curb appeal.