To do this you could cut a piece of rock wool insulation (ether batt or board) to tightly fit into the top of your firebox - I would leave a piece of {bright coloured} string or chain hanging down to remind you the flue is blocked.  

If someone owns a vacant multi family property your yellow letter will most likely get thrown in the recycle bin with the hundreds of other junk mail pieces.

Even though the subfloor had the same cracks/gashes, the extra underlayment we bought and put down (underneath the laminate's built-in underlayment padding), plus the fact that the floor is one solid piece, seems to be much better for our situation.If you're on a 100% flat subfloor you might have better luck, but especially if this stuff is going to hold up to tenants, I would advise against it.

Sturdy brick homes are beloved, ubiquitous and distinctly in Chicago and there are tons of them that need some rehab :)My team usually work with house average age of 80-90 years. 

So, since this piece of land has a home on it, I found it odd that the SEV value was so low compared to other homes on the street (most of the time they are within the same ranges of each other, as most homes in subdivisions like this were built around the same time and tend to have a similar SEV for taxation).

Bill Exeter is absolutely correct on a great strategy for the patient investor to not just defer but actually eliminate the capital gains tax on a primary residence conversion - where you take a piece of investment property you have and "change it into your primary residence by moving into it.  

First, this is a piece of advice I recently gave to another newbie...  

I'd do an analysis of whether it would cost more to just pay him upfront as opposed to the equity stake but if you have that extra piece of mind and feel he is awesome at managing jobs and you can spend your time elsewhere then I don't see why this isn't a good agreement.3)Check out your comps.

Don't buy into the hype from gurus that there is a "missing piece" of the puzzle that only they have.

Lets say you bought a piece in Cicero or Berwyn.