Your mentor’s advice about starting with a rental property is solid, and a duplex could be a great option for house hacking.

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.

Have you also looked into other funding options?

There are two options I have offered and I want to get a check on here if I am off base with my offer or if I need to push harder.

If I have several options, I would prefer a HELOC with no initial draw requirements (i.e. to establish a literal line of credit that I have no specific short term plans to use), i.e. not something like the better.com HELOC. 

They won't always be upfront about this with you but if know they're selling because they want to retire, that opens you up to different options vs if they're an investor just selling for profit.

What you want to avoid is a lengthy contract with extension options.

That might be an option.

You’re in a solid position with this property, and it’s smart to weigh your options carefully.

This is a buy and hold in a great location in a great market Does anyone know of a group i can post this deal And last option we were considering was to use her cards to pay off my debt so then I can buy the house from her and get a loan on it If u made it this far thanks 🙂