I have one 3 unit in Chicago that I am looking to sell for more capital.

I am wondering what are some creative ways to make deals happen without credit or capital.

So, I could use $20k of the $75k capital gains as a down payment to finance the purchase of a $100k rental unit in my personal name, and the 1031 portion would be the $20k, right?

It sounds like the Chicago opportunity is to buy a value add opportunity - which will take capital and expertise to make improvements. 

Are you not saving for capital expenses?

I was a teacher and didn't have a lot of capital when starting out so I had to be creative.

Or if you know of any hard money lenders in the Las Vegas area I could utilize to acquire the property and get my foot in the door and then refinance the property with a conventional lender, rip the forced appreciation out from the renovation and repeat the process only next time I'll have capital to use a conventional lender from the beginning.

The first step when you are ready meaning you have gained all the knowledge that you are going to get out of webinars,E-Books, seminars etc... is securing the capital you need in order to proceed with your real estate career.

The bank wins with 70% equity in the deal, the seller wins because they don't have to pay capital gains on the entire purchase price and they get to collect steady cash flow for the next 30 years, and I win because I get the deal done with nothing down collecting the cash flow, capitalizing on the depreciation of the property and writing off everything in between. 

I think I have got enough knowledge and capital to buy my first SFH or duplex rental property, but my wife thinks buying rental properties is gambling.