I've heard so many success stories on the BP podcast of people who've done really well with the buy-and-hold strategy and have the freedom to travel and not have to work a 9-5 (unless they want to, of course) and can pursue other interests, so that is a huge dream of mine too.

I work closely with people in my market that are looking to invest in the STR space!

Once you have those, you'll want to seek out people that have experience with those investment strategies.As for real estate meetups, here is a list of those in Chicago.

Some people just told me to put up a sign and then go from there.

Hit me up if you want to talk to my 1031 people for further game planning. 

Their program may work for some people.

I just came back from there and really love the city, culture, people, food. , and now wondering what the process might be for acquiring something there, where it might make the most sense, and if the numbers check out in the short and potentially long term.I'd love to connect with anyone who can offer any advice or thoughts would really be tremendous.

hey Jerome, we've had a lot of great success on Facebook marketplace, lots of people are using that for all kinds of things, it's pretty much the new craigslist.  

In the past, once people graduated high school/college they moved out and it was socially embarrassing living with your parents.

At this point with my network and contacts i have really good deals at my desk many times but i have no capital to buy them and i kinda hate it, just wanted to pick the brain of the experienced folks here, should i raise capital and include other people and help them get 8% cash on cash and be partners and if so how and from where as i have never done this before?