The city of Beloit has been pouring a lot of money into improving the area and ridding itself of it's "rough town" reputation, but ultimately, a knowledeable family friend with over 30 rentals in the area convinced us that if we were looking to be a certain kind of landlord, that Beloit would not work for us.

I am reaching out to find a reputable mold remediation contractor in the Chicagoland area.  

Gives all landlords a bad reputation that isn't necessarily deserved.

You'll need to learn to love Excel (or your financial calculator).Whichever path you choose, be sure to get trained by reputable experts who are still actively investing in their area of expertise.

He's a guy who's been doing buinsiness in the area for a long time and has a good reputation among his peers.

and what should I look for in a reputable company? 

Depending on how your listing contact is written, it's possible that a commission is owed (to your broker), but is taking the seller to court really the reputation you want to establish for yourself?  

Inkster is close by, but we'd never go into inkster.anyway, the short story was.... the payoff amount was around 37k. the house is in terrible condition, so the agent had it listed for 25k. i was the highest offer at 30k, so i had it under contract for a few months. the banks didn't approve the SL and the agent said the homeowner might not make it much longer. so i just gave them what they owed on the house, $36k+ and we closed on it today.i dont have inside pics cause i didn't bring my nice camera, but i will take some pics and post them. the expected rent in this area for a 2 bed will be around 900, hope to get $950 if we can push it. we'll see. it needs everything... top to bottom. it was not a horder's house, but pretty close to it. it might have over 400 plastic bags and maybe 200 cans of pringels. also, lots and lots of shot gun shells. lots!

(these numbers are very rough)4) We have several reputable and established developers that have expressed interest in partnering with us on a project similar to the one described above.

Their appreciation values are also extremely good.It seems like this area is promising, but I'm worried a bit about the reputation.