Drastic times call for drastic measures!!!

It can work for comparing to other properties, but I want to have some sort of measurement of the return on my investment and cap rate makes more sense to me in that regard.  

Have a buddy with you introduce him as a contractor , tell him you want to measure for bars on the windows and a 8 ft chain link fence around the yard while you are talking to the tenants .    

I am not doing a fha loan but you sound like an owner occupied deal, as far as closing cost I'm not sure of what they will be but I Googled closing costs for the Chicago area and some of the sights gave me some measurements of what I may be paying for the cost of certain things on a standard close 

Make sure you have all your measurements with you.

It will likely look REALLY GOOD for cash-on-cash returns and REALLY BAD if you decided “return on equity” was your preferred measure.

I've heard it said that # of realtor's getting their license is a viable metric to measure hysteria in the market.

These are old buildings so the plumbing is probably not a direct run from the basement, so I would ideally need to measure water in at the point of use.  

You aren't doing them a favor, you are using your own money, and you are paying full market value as measured at the time of the buyout (unless you like being sued).The question about cashing out investors and keeping the property for yourself is a common question from aspiring syndicators. 

The sellers said it did, we went back, measured, and found out they were not to code.