Welcome to the group, Tanner and congrats on getting married this year!

I love that you have specific goals for 2025 - I believe if we think it, write it, say it, and share it our goals are 10x more likely to come to fruition.Are you able to do option 2 and just house hack a 2-4 unit building and use a renovation loan which allows you to put down 3.5-5%I highly suggest getting to some local chicago meetup groups (we have an in person one on the 17th)...here is BPs list: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521-real-estate-events-...I also have a full list of the chicago meetups that I can share with you too if that'd be helpful.

@Joseph Augustus Welcome to Bigger Pockets and I wish you the best in investing journey, one of  the ways is to use Facebook Groups but you need to vet very cautiously . 

Quote from @John Mason: @Abigail Katherine Grier Welcome  to BP where you will find great investors and advice usually:)There are groups likehttps://www.meetup.com/impacttyler/Hope that helps Thanks so much! 

Plus, if you'd like to connect and talk marketing/sales happy to do coffee or something.Also, there are tons of Facebook groups for Chicago real estate.Lastly, just doing some 1:1 networking with lenders, agents, and architects is something we focus heavily on.

I really appreciate the advice on attending a local investor group meet up.

Now consider this: all the groups people are spending fortunes to target—foreclosures, absentee owners, probate leads, tax liens—what do they have in common?

, the more likely people will respond with valuable insights.Network actively: Join local investor meetups, online forums (like BiggerPockets), and social media groups focused on real estate to start engaging in conversations.Be open to learning: Real estate investing is a dynamic field, and the more you learn, the more you'll realize there’s to know!

Maybe you want to attend real estate conferences or join more real estate groups to expand your network.

I would recommend searching for local Facebook groups to find events to attend.