I'm extremely curious to learn about what works, what doesn't and how to consistently be successful.

My concern is the possible hiccups in the re-fi process.Experts what are your experiences?

I know there are some health concerns in buying a home this close, but my concern is not really that as of now.  

Long time lurker on the boards here and have found them incredibly informative and many of the members extremely courteous and professional.

And, I also suspect, as a birddog, you don't have a clue concerning getting paid and violations of law as most birddogs don't.So, the best thing for you to do might be to start reading here, read all kinds of threads, not just what you think you want to hear and begin with more current threads as laws have changed.

That’s another story.Nevertheless, I’m still concerning what you’d said about the security deposit which I’d also read it from other post that said the same.

My concern though is, it is listed for $259k for both houses, and they are easily worth $50k or more than that together, even if they look like crap on the inside.

The only real reason for concern might be if you feel uncomfortable in the neighborhood you are farming, but then you might want to work in a nicer neighborhood anyway.There are some specific tools that are necessary to employ this technique, for you or your help.

can anyone direct me to more conversation concerning chicago real estate.

If I pretend that none of that will ever occur, I can claim an extremely low expense ratio today, but it won't reflect reality over time.On the other extreme, the big apartment building (the pink elephant) that I purchased in January has one apartment that has been vacant for a couple of years.