We will have a fair amount tied up in renovations when we are done, somewhere in the ball park or $65k, we only paid $35k for it though.

Try to have your personal debt under control, have a good credit score and understand you will need some cash and reserves the amount will be determine by your market.. .

Gone are the days when a property was offered up for  no more than the amount of taxes owed, now days it has become a bidding process and as in any auction enviroment people tend to get emotional about their bidding and become quite impractical, and irrational buyers

Did you get a quote for this amount?

That is not 7% of the profit but 7% of the total amount given to the seller.

There is also a solid amount of inventory north of Oak Park in neighborhoods like Elmwood Park, River Grove, Franklin Park, etc. 

You can possibly work with the seller and put an agreement together that if you pay the deficit in full and whatever they want on top of that amount then you can take ownership of the property.

I have found most management companies take 10% rent plus one half to one full months rent amount when filling a unit.  

Sell it and with the amount of hours I put in, the 25kish income would hardly make me feel good. the rental market here is BOOMING. so I could get top dollar as a rental.

Without that, prepare to spend a very significant amount of time chasing deals.If you have no startup cash at all, you're probably better off looking for a local partner to work with for a cut of the profit.