Those turnovers, more than normal maintenance requests, and the cost of the occassional eviction eat into the actual real life cash flow you will realize with a property like this and long term will not match the paper numbers that look good and enticing as you evaluate the deal now.Even if you can buy in a lower end B or solid C neighbrohood, it is drastically different than a D property in my experience.

Pros of a condo would be no yard matin, trash etc - Cons would be, HOA fees would eat at your cash flow potentially but as long as you figured that into your numbers youd be good.

I have now paid the collections, but it could take some time (months) for the report to bounce back and me be within good standing.I am single with no debt other than a small amount of credit card debt that is used for bills \ small consumer things (eating out, movies, etc) and is paid off in full every month.

From the way things are going, I project maintenance calls alone would eat up to 30%-40% of gross rental income. 

This means you have a few options.Option 1 - you pay the whole bill yourself and eat the cost of water/sewer for the tenant.Option 2 - you let Guardian continue billing the tenant for their % of the usage. 

Do I eat it or bill the tenant.

The terrace is becoming the center of the apartment - people eat, relax, work, sunbath, lounge, invite friends over, practice yoga, you name it, in a space like this.

Chicago realtors should mandate that owners selling a 2-4 unit should prove the legality of those units before listing by supplying a zoning cert; it's a ~$150 cost that they have to eat anyway.

But I’m stuck with it now, and I don’t want to eat in trouble down the road for posting noticed within the grace period called out in the lease.

Watch out the BP hounds might eat you alive for that