I also show them things I do when visiting a property, such as turning the shades so the seams are facing the wall, straightening the area rugs, cleaning the grill grate... not to say "do these things", but to teach the critical eye and to walk in the guest's shoes, thinking about the details that might affect their impressions and experience.

I fronted all of the money for down payment and ongoing expenses, and we split the profit/loss at the end of the flip. 

Because morality is not an on-off button, it is one of degrees and shades, as in a FREEDOM society people have the free-choice to engage in acts that are NOT moral, like eating a tipple Whopper with bacon and cheese every day if they choose.

Less important initially, but also good to get insurance loss runs on a building this old (at 50 years) along with identifying functional obsolescence items (e.g. no central air). $200 (even $500) is a giveaway that you didn't get a quote and do your homework. 

Crime has unfortunately gotten out of control  in select areas but the Chicagoland area in general has seen a loss of people wanting to live there.  

As for my other properties; they are all landlord policies through Allstate and they cover lost rents in case of a loss.

One word of caution, don't take a first job that is oriented around construction or construction management, I have found it very hard for folks to move from construction to development without some loss of career traction to do so.For example, I come from a family of real estate developers, but I was ambitious to learn rapidly and work for others in the multi-family development domain, so I obtained my first job (asst. project manager) for a division of KB Home (Kaufman and Broad Multi-Housing) that developed in-house apartment projects.

For vacancy, I usually budget around 7-8% since that equates to about 1 month of loss rent per year.

A) Good riddance and cut your losses? 

i know as a non-real estate professional you are limited to $25,000 in losses.