Self Directed IRA for First Rental Property

[Shane Malloy]

I have been researching for my first rental property. I have a pretty substantial amount of savings in a rollover 401K. I have ~$40K-$50K available for investment in cash but have a substantial amount in 401K savings that I can leverage. I am exploring moving some of these retirement funds to a self directed IRA and using this for my first rental property.

I've read a few articles on BP about this but would be interested in getting others thoughts on this.  I am sure there are some folks here that have done this and I would love to hear their pros and cons.