Complete Newbie-- am I on the right path?

[Jimil-Anne Linton]

Hi, my name is Jimil.  I live in Lompoc, CA (near Santa Barbara).  I'm a newbie to Bigger Pockets and Real Estate Investing.  In fact, I've only started learning about all this over the last 2 weeks and I am intrigued!  In the last two weeks, I've listened to/read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki, "Financial Freedom with Real Estate Investing" by Michael Blank, and I am currently reading "Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat" by David Greene.  I've just gone down this huge rabbit hole, and I desperately want to learn more!

I am going through a tough situation in my life, but seeing light at the end of the tunnel and have large plans to rebuild. I am not sure which direction to go, and could use some help/advice. I am going through a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, in which me and my soon-to-be ex-spouse are in a 5-year repayment plan. We've been in the repayment plan for about a year now. I spoke with our bankruptcy lawyer earlier this week and learned that we can sell our home to pay off the debt. Our house has enough equity to pay off the debt and leave us both with a decent amount of cash to split and rebuild. We are looking to sell our home around Spring of 2022, and divorcing by the Summer. When we divorce, I am looking to invest $20K in real estate. I thought about either using my VA Loan (no money down) to buy a home for my primary residence, or using the $20K as a down payment towards it-- or renting a home, but I don't think that would be making good use of my money. While reading David Greene's book, I thought about the buying step in the BRRRR method, and realized $20K would not be much capital to start investing in homes (though I have seen some homes out-of-state that are in my price range, but will require a lot of rehab). While thinking about building capital, I thought that since I plan to stay in town for the next five years till my kids are done with school, it would be wise to buy a home and let it appreciate-- I anticipate that in the next years, my home would appreciate substantially enough to have a good amount of capital to successfully invest/profit using the BRRRR method. In that mean time, I could work on growing my network/team, researching, and learning more.

I'm not sure if I'm on the right track, or if I would be moving too slow into making my first deal--- or if there is a more expedited way to go about accomplishing my goals. I'd like to BRRRR homes and ultimately have a great cash flow going. I was really stupid and uneducated about money and finances during my 20's and most of my 30's, I'd like to be a lot wiser this time around-- and I want to get myself out of the rat race.

Any advice welcomed and appreciated.  Thanks for reading and letting me put this out there... :)