If you have fair credit, verifiable rental history and consistent income you can easily secure FHA financing in Houston and the inner city is the ideal place to house hack because of it's proximity to all the cool and trendy places downtown along with the major universities and Med Center.

I want to invest in the Chicago market, but it seems so expensive to find a good duplex, triplex, 4plex.Does anyone have any suggestions how to go about securing a good solid first deal?

They will definitely ask for a financial statement form where you list assets, liabilities, debts (secure, non secure), W2, Job status, ... etc.If you don't have anything palpable, they might just ask some front desk person or salesperson call you back.

The same as a regular flip?

Secure bank financing on 1 of the houses for $50,000 which would clear his debt.

If you are unable to secure a better price you may want to look at higher deductibles to see if the savings is worthwhile. 

and to understand how they fit together in your toolbox, as none will give you everything (e.g, insurance is required and it will cover you for many situations, but not always; asset protection (LLC) is litigation insurance and complements regular insurance, by minimizing the target and making it unappealing).If you are a new investor, probably you will not have a lot of assets and/or equity to worry about (but even that is relative and subjective to each person tolerance to risk) so I would not worry about that till you pass that risk threshold (in my opinion 100K+ in equity, maybe 50K if you are really risk adverse) and you should be primarily concerned with finding good deals and growing your business first.

It's good to hear "regular" folks talk about their successes!

All parties agree that termination of this agreement without prior notice before December 2019 will constitute breach of the tenancy as agree on Page 1, and all security deposits shall be forfeited in favor of the Owner as full Liquidated damages at Owner's option following termination without notice"So.. what are my options?

I'm looking for an hvac company and a plumber that are willing to forgo charging me a crap ton that understand that I can toss them way more work than a regular homeowner.