Finally financially stable with money to invest

[Brent Morse]

I will be pooring over all the posts I can find that relate to my question but until then some general advice would be awesome. Long story short I went through some very difficult times in my early 20s due to a divorce and multiple custody battles. I went from amazing credit and a great savings account to homeless and bankrupt. Now I’m almost in my 30s and doing better financially. I’m still in a chapter 13 bankruptcy, however, I have the money on hand to pay it off completely but legally I have to wait another year before doing so. All my other debt has been wiped out and I’m finally back on top with 20k saved up. I’ve learned a great deal about the importance of investing and passive income, which brings me to my advice needs. I’m very interested in real estate. I lean more towards rental properties than flipping because I prefer monthly cash flow and flipping houses seems riskier and more intimidating to me. I obviously can’t qualify for any kind of loans from a bank except the VA loan and I don’t feel comfortable with borrowing from family. What suggestions does this community have in regards on how to invest this money to start a life of semi passive income? Im able to save about 17k a year. My ultimate goal is to own rental property. Given this information, if you were in my shoes what would you do? Thanks for any advice!