Are there non-licensed people that have success stories? 

It is used to make a quick assumption on a property and can be valuable when an investor wants to do a quick look at multiple properties without knowing a lot about the details of those properties.As I noted in my response, better companies, doing better renovations and offering a higher standard of management, will be successful at holding down those costs over time and may even be closer to 40%.  

Having been to many of their events and knowing how this works from the back offices and so on and so forth.what I  see  is just like any other slice of life.. some get it will do good.. others no chance they don't have the personality they don't have the drive and commitment.And or they think by reading BP or paying for a mentor is all they need to all of a sudden be a real estate rock star.and at the end of the day.. most gravitate to what you see here on BP  they realize this is a uber tough business with a lot of rejection.. and they will do what it takes to buy rentals. that's why this is predominantly a landlord site.. its the easiest to understand and the easiest to implement.. not that everyone who gets into land lording is successful because many fail at it ..

My girlfriend and I are fully committed to starting investing in 2018, and I hope to be able to share our, let´s hope successful, story very soon.Currently, I am reading as much as I can and listening to several podcasts.

Make sure you join a brokerage where he/she will be willing to help mentor you and do whatever it takes to make you successful. 

Has anyone successfully rezoned a legal 2-flat into a legal 3-flat in Chicago?

With the demand growing it will be harder to find good deals, but it seems like you’re, @Benjamin Riehle, having success with it.

I guess the owner purchased this place in 2016, and did some big renovations to the property over the last two years and added these new tenants at lower rent rates over handshakes.As long as she successfully comes back to me on Monday with 6 lease agreements, that sort of resolves that strange situation, right?

I started a year ago and have been very successful in making money.  

Just know, that doing turnkey successfully depends a lot on the who you choose to work with, and the kind of vetting you do to get to your choice.