I am located on the Naperville / Aurora border which is roughly 35 miles straight west outside of Chicago.

Your next best bet to find something cheap is the North End which is about 3 Miles North of Downtown, but off Woodward and Oakland Aves, or maybe the east Jefferson Area.Also, if your Spanish is pretty solid, and can handle dealing with people without a verifiable job, or immigration papers, SW Detroit, in Mexican Village could be an option.In all these places I mentioned you better be ready to dig in hard on a renovation, and take control of the property.

Postcards are HALF the cost to print & mail.  

I will use my home and take out a line of credit to fund my half.

Also is there a way to not give up half of it to taxes?

and long term planning, I'd especially be looking at properties inside multi-family and/or mixed use zones within 1/4 mile of Highway 99 along the 10 mile stretch between Everett and Edmonds.

The difference in lending vs partnering in my opinion is that my partner assumes half the liability where a lender would not share that risk. 

If that was you then I found you to be an excellent negotiator (which is more than half the battle in real estate imo).

Google hud homes half off

Miles your post is way too vague.Are you buying residential, commercial??