Having umbrella insurance or having an LLC for your property management services is a great business model to protect yourself.

Breadth of knowledge and expertise in all areas of real estate investing (buy & hold, fix & flip, as well as usual realty services). 

Somewhere, somebody is going to need to be paid for a service.

And services have been cut to the bone.At some point we likely see bankruptcy (as predicted by the bonds), but even if we dont, its fair to say Illinois is not a growth state, and that costs for fees, and property taxes are likely headed up.So declining population, radical tenant friendly laws and high government costs all point to me as a place I would not want to invest.

Oh, and thanks for your service.

My advice would be to treat service members the same as everyone else. 

I have seen legitimately better and worse by a wide margin as local area rents / utilities / taxes / building services each play a big role.Also, from a landlords perspective, it depends on what gets passed on to the tenants (e.g.

Growth: 0%Renter Population: 30+%City Description: The city is the service hub of the county, it contains all the big box stores as well as a struggling downtown.  

I have a local pest control company service 5 units for mice every month

Many times when borrowers are current, the servicers do think everything is alright.