That will apply more upward pressure to values in the area, as I think the shopping center is kind of a drag on values currently.

Where we are located, the city requires the water/sewer bill to be in the landlord's name, so the students pay the landlord the rent, water, sewer and trash and then the students pay the electric, gas and cable/internet directly to the utility company.  

Is there a low-cost service out there that the tenants can go to and print their own report so that they don't keep getting charged by multiple landlords when they are applying for several places?

I tried to get that property directly from the bank but no go. 

I've been sending direct mail (yellow postcards) to absentee owners in DuPage and Kane County, over the last 5-6 months and I've been averaging a 1.2% - 1.5% response rate, which I understand to be pretty decent.  

Mike Hurney , on small scale, I've been doing my own hand written notes directly to home owners/properties I'm interested in.

Up front disclosure, taxes are not my area of expertise neither is direct mail.

Let's be in touch directly.

In my opinion, yes, it can be done, but you're looking into a bigger mess as far as the government is concerned.Lets preface this with I don't know exactly how this works either, but after a certain amount of people are involved you have to report as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and have to file extra forms related to your business and also after a certain threshold you also need to report members and their distributions to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) so they know as well.Being young (as am I) you are going to run into a lot of dead ends trying to apply for a residential loan with a business name.  

You can use regular purchase and sales agreement and cross out those sections that don't apply.