Possibilities for beginner investor

[Account Closed]

Hello and thank you first for the time you are taking to read my question. I am looking for ideas for my plan to financial freedom. I am very minimalistic in my needs and currently can cover my livestyle for $2,000/month. Single no kids.

I am 26 and bought my first home about 3 years ago. I have a good interest rate of 3.75% 30 year conventional loan. My home I purchased for 130K and after rehabbing it with a family member it may be worth 180-190k+ (new kitchen, bath, painting, decluttered, new carpet, turning the upstairs into a bedroom to improve value). I have a good equity position I put 20% down when I purchased.

I became a licensed realtor the end of 2017. I started learning about investing. I still work an overnight job as a supervisor (7 years) which can bring in approximately 40-45k before taxes. I want to keep my w-2 job to make getting loans easier for the time being but do real estate full time as soon as possible. (Sales have given me some extra capital but rentals will allow me to quit w-2 and invest/sales full time and pursue my passion for music as well even if it is 10 years from now (mall piano player in the past).

I am thinking about pulling a heloc out on my primary residence and using the money to buy another property. At first I thought I could pull out a heloc then move into a 2-4 unit with owner financing and rent out the other units and my primary residence as well. The heloc I learned I may have to change to an investment heloc because a heloc is suppose to be for primary residence (although I have heard of heloc offered on investment properties with lower LTV given).

I live in west suburbs of Chicago where residential prices are very high still. Part of me thinks about going turnkey out of state to start building wealth. Should I 1031 exchange for a 2-4 unit. What do you think is a good plan to aquire cash flow at a steady pace? I still want to be conservative and factor in rents going down in case of a recession. Which got me thinking maybe do not do a 2-4 unit and just use a large down payment from my heloc on another single family home; to avoid a high mortgage (if i can find a value add deal). I could move into that home and rent out the primary residence that I have fixed up? Thank you for your input.