All participants have their credit checked and employment verified among other things.

Check out Anderson Advisors  Derly. 

Run some numbers to make sure you check after tax revenue since interest on lending is ordinary income

A quick check-up can rule out bigger problems and show your tenant you're proactive.

I was thinking only doing credit/BG check through buildium like I do for my LTRs.- Where do you advertise for bookings?

You'll find the BP community here is strong, friendly, and a great resource for you to connect with awesome investors and real estate professionals.Highly suggest checking out some of the local Chicago meetups, here is a list of some on BP: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-real-estate-events-...Also, I've got a much bigger list I will share with you as well.Are you looking to house hack, or what's your plan to get into the game here?

Definitely check out those other properties and see why they're lower to you. 

I'll check them out.

We have gotten up to drywall at this point and last week we went out to check on the property and found out our sewer line is broken.

Many attorneys only do conventional closings for agents.If you check out their website, most of them should list the types of transactions they can close.