Again, talk to the locals—cops, hotel personnel, and restaurant employees—to obtain the inside scoop about the neighborhood.Real estate investing necessitates rigorous attention to detail, which is why property tours are essential for acquiring critical information.

Has anyone found a local bank in the Chicagoland area that offers a loan like this?

The stream bed in question is small/ephermeral, and the properties haven't flood in 12 years, even when the local area has seen some massive flooding in the last decade.  

So, try some local real estate meetup groups.

Do you have a local rental association that you could join?

And she can always lock it to a street sign or find a local bike storage no?

I would recommend staying in Findlay, Ohio for a while as your cost of entry is going to be much lower and you are local to the area.

This sounds like a deal for a local commercial bank.

You can try this site to find a local mortgage broker:https://mortgagematchup.com/ 

I recommend finding a great local lender and building a relationship with them, then getting your info directly from them rather than articles and videos.