Real estate investing is definitely a lot of hard (but rewarding work) and if there is one person doing more of the work than someone else, human nature kicks in and that person will naturally want or feel entitled to a larger slice of the profits.

Combined that with my natural ability to get sh.. done, could I be the catalyst you've been missing in your business. 

And we haven't been able to find financing with the history / nature of our income but we'll keep looking.

Because of that, they will flip a few properties throughout the year (in between their buy and holds) to supplement their income.

We widened the kitchen entrance, added a see-through for the dark staircase to add more natural light, put in new floors, kitchen, and bath.

They get less headache, nobody pays capital gains, and you can mutually decide how much you get paid as property manager and how much rent should be depending on whether they want to give you money (property manager fees) or you want to supplement their retirement (rent), and you get the property when they pass on.

Chicago building code requires 8% of natural light and 4% of natural vent for living and bedroom spaces.

Do you recommend supplemental insurances policy (caused by tenant negligence) and preventive maintenance (HVAC and termite)?

We've only now gotten to large scale testing, so naturally more people are going to test positive.

Supplementing your knowledge with the knowledge of others can help you avoid mistakes you may have otherwise made.