Or would it be best to offer some free services such as boots on the ground in exchange to learn from another investors business?  

In my former occupation as a stocks and options trader there was plenty of cash flow to do this.  

Too many of my "real-life" conversations are with people who are lock stock and barrel bought into the industrial corporate model that broke down in the 1980's.

. -- means to engage in any of the following activities: (1) for consideration, providing any of the following services for another person: (i) selling, buying, exchanging, or leasing any real estate; (2) for consideration, assisting another person to locate or obtain for purchase or lease any residential real estate;The key here is for another person.

I also do stock options as a hobby (and I know some excellent techniques :)    The point is, I've learned a lot about stocks and options from Stansberry Radio, and one of the hosts is James Altucher, who is a super-smart guy!!   

OTOH, if they're building undesirable apartment buildings, or something that's going to create a lot of traffic and congestion it may have a negative effect.You should look into 1031 exchanges.  

While Chicago does offer some good stock for the price.

Have a unique situation where the property owner would like to exchange/swap their vacant lot for one of the future developed units.  

We are now managing a 4 unit investment property in Oak Park IL for a family member.After their unexpected passing we found that there was a reverse mortgage on it.Property fair market value is about $335K with foreclosing Lenders estimate of $495K.The lender started foreclosure process, but we want to keep the property either to keep it as an investment property ($41.7K rent -$10K taxes -water), or sell in the future when prices pick up.With the current market we cant get a fair shake on the price, and we had some funny low ball offers from people/investors wanting to take advantage of the situation.We are looking to either partner with someone knowledgeable and split up the units and future rent profits, or loan $285,000 cash in exchange for a 30% percent stake of the home's future appreciation.What would be a better sounding offer to you as an investor?

Think of the 2% rule as something similar to the PE ratio in the stock market.