He went on to mention that he raised the rents to just under $15 below market rate, and got the tenant to sign a 3 year lease if they would agree to allow a remodel (which he gave them a selection styles to pick from).Thus, he was able to significantly accelerate the asset stabilization process from the very beginning by increasing rents, remodeling, and getting new leases.What's your success, failure, or near casualty that you escaped? 

if your a beginner highly unlikely your going to get Zero money down deals.. there will be some closing cost some cost involved.. you should work on some kish up front then go shopping.. nothing spells failure quicker than under funded.

Apparently, Chicago/IL landlord law requires regular payments and/or accounting of interest earned from security deposits, and failure to follow through on that can result in a fine of treble the amount of the security deposit. 

These have a high failure rate because one of you can just walk away and the other is stuck with the debt.

Other crimes that come to mind are brokering real estate without a license, real estate fraud (aforementioned and also possibly failure to disclose), forgery (creating fake leases), grand theft (taking money for rehabs and not delivering materials or completing work), wire fraud, money laundering (operating a Ponzi scheme), etc. etc. 

Drug dealing 4 times , assault and battery 2 times , domestic violence 4 times , IRS lien over 10K ,  failure to pay child support 10 times , and only 1 Failure to pay rent .  

Can anyone recommend a lawyer who represents buyers who may have been defrauded due to the failure of seller to disclose known problems with a property prior to purchase.

Not RE related but it makes you think different in that you’re fully responsible for your success (or failures).

You could do the lease option and then when they default you would have their deposit but that is not exactly honest.Do not do it, it is a recipe for failure.

(c) No cause of action shall arise against an appraiser of real property, a licensee as agent of an owner, or a licensee as agent of a potential or actual transferee of real property for failure to inquire about, make a disclosure about, or release information about the existence of any fact or circumstance or suspicion of the existence of any fact or circumstance that indicates that the real property is psychologically All that being stated, I'd leverage the heck out of the situation in dealing with the bank...