Hello from the greater St Louis area

[Mark Prather]

I joined this group with the hopes of starting a Real Estate Investment business soon so that I can step away from the corporate life I have lived for more than 30 years.

It's time for me to try something new...oh, where to begin :) 

[Brett Synicky]

@Mark Prather Welcome to the BP club.  If you're going to do flips on a regular basis you may want to take a look at a Solo 401k instead of an SDIRA.  Higher contribution limits, participant loan option, no UBIT on financed real estate, to name a few.  You would have to maintain the self employment activity and not have any employees other than a spouse.  Up to $69k annually double that with a spouse

If you have no plans on maintaining self employment activity and would rather go more passive then the SDIRA might make more sense.  Lower contribution limits so it helps to have a nice sum to directly rollover into the SDIRA so you have enough to invest.  

One thing to note, is that if you are doing flips in either Solo or SDIRA the IRS is likely to see that as running a business and you could be subject to UBIT (unrelated business tax) which scales up to 37% so it can be pretty hefty depending on the numbers.  That's why I mentioned using that as the sponsoring business of the solo 401k.  

Whichever you do, make sure you have checkbook control so you can invest quicker and avoid custodial fees each time you invest.   Hope this helps - I know it's a lot of info.