The court overturned stare decisis (established case law) to make their decision which they don't do lightly so this is actually a really big deal.  

@Priscilla Quintana, You mentioned in your profile that you have a well established career.

After you have established some equity, get a home equity line of credit (HELOC) and use that for your investing.

Thank you for being a part of my experiment.For this first meetup my thoughts would be to just get to meet each other (Networking), and to establish discussion topics for future meetups. 

Some of these include doing my first deal this year not matter what (local flip, and out of state rentals), establishing a network of RE professionals, and learning as much as I can. 

Worked to get non-monetary value by negotiating sit-downs with the seller, who is an established investor in the area.

Even if the deals are harder to come by now you have the advantage of being established in this market.  

I'm hoping to connect with established investors in Chicago and would love to help you in exchange for some wisdom.If you're interested in meeting for coffee/lunch in the city next week please reply or send me a message.Best,Bret

I am 7 months out from discharge and preparing to re-establish bmyself and make up for lost time through teal estate investment.

Or do I establish some relationships with hard money lenders first?