Once you've exhausted the benefit of that particular coach/mentor (which could be days, months, years or even decades), you move on.In fact, you put it best with, "...I was ready for it and it filled my knowledge gap."

I think your willingness to explain the process rather than an air ofsmoke and mirrors is what FTHBs like me need in order to feel confident about working on big decisions involving capital and commitment.

I would exhaust all avenues regarding hiring the right property manager.

It's much cheaper than an attorney, but you do need to sort of know the direction you want to go.If you need something more solid and/or more direction, definitely reach out to an attorney. 

Make sure that the sponsor of that deal is a) local, and b) is willing to share more than an offering memorandum and monthly reports. 

im old school......I look at the property card to find their name.....and i exhaust all means to find them.....if that means facebook, linkedin, truepeoplesearch.......by any means necessary

@Nghi Le I plan to defeat you through exhaustion, not through logic.

You can search for certified WOB in Illinois here, try filtering to commodity code NAICS 23 "Construction" or any of the subcodes beginning with 23 (i.e. specifically for plumbing, roofing, etc.)Now there may not be many businesses that have taken the steps to certify with your states small business arm or similar departments, so it's not an exhaustive list.

You just have to make sure you calculate the funds so that you can try and exhaust all of the money from the sale into the new purchase or what it called the "Boot" when you do a 1031 Exchange.Keep in mind one of the loopholes is you can sell a property and put the profits back into another home using it for both down payment and closing costs. 

Your umbrella typically applies when the liability on your underlying policy is exhausted.