I have read some books and articles online but haven’t actually done anything with it yet.

I am going to my local real estate investors club in a few weeks and I have also read some books and a few online articles.

You will only be offering sweat equity at this point and you may get little, if any, financial return assisting a sponsor on the first deal(s) but it is often how you enter the commercial real estate game.

Any suggestions whether it be online or other will be greatly appreciated.

Any suggestions whether it be online or other will be greatly appreciated.

I would ask the lender, but probably not most lenders want you to have skin in the game, even the seller takes on a lot of risk if you don't pay, because they would not be first loan position. 

Bottom line, if you want in the game you will have a situation when it's owner-occupied that you live very cheap but not free (ie 400-700/month), when you move out you will have very modest to even cash flow for the first few years. 

Join your local REIA and get access to other lenders, or join Illinois REIA online.

I can Look into it now and see if they file online records.

However, I still verify each transaction online manually on my checking account monthly, but it takes me only a few seconds to verify each mortgage or rent transaction on my computer.