@Claudio Golia a wealth of great advice here and I think @Jay Hinrichs hit the nail on the head regarding vacation rentals in areas you would actually like to live. 

Learning is my greatest strength and I'm certain that I can figure this out if I can find the right people to work with.Hi Matt,Before going out and looking for partners on the deal, you might want to nail down your lenders.

If you "LOVE" doing real estate and having dirty finger nails and "HATE" sitting at a desk, maybe it's worth it to you to accept a lower compensation to be a flipper full time.

I figure you should have people do what they do best, I pound nails, bookkeepers do books. 

They are all small items like patching up nail holes, changing batteries in smoke detector etc.  

@Greg Scott nailed it. 

And you hit the nail on the head, finding that property that has the room for value add and some meet on the bone for a refinance is tough to find.Hope you are doing well since we last talked!

@Paul De Luca nailed it on the end - you can definitely enforce a no-smoking policy, but outside of that I am not sure there is much you can do here in Chicago.

From nailing market trends to spinning up killer marketing strategies, I've got the skills we need to make our real estate dreams a reality.Here's the deal: I'm ready to kick in $100K to get the ball rolling.

I suspected it was from a leaking roof, which was subsequently replaced before I brought the property but the wetting and drying over the years created cracks in the drywall and the vibration from the opening and closing of the garage door helped to separate the drywall from the drywall nails.