Starting Out - Looking to use a self directed IRA

[Jeff White]

Good Morning Everyone!

My name is Jeff and I live in the Norther Virginia area with my wife Shelley. Like many other newbies, I've been lurking on BP, listening to podcasts and webinars, and getting a sense for the tools and resources available on the site. We are looking to move more into SFR market. We have dabbled in real estate over the years and currently own a home in Hawaii we are renting, albeit at the expense of many lessons conveyed on this site. While we are having PM issues for which I've been sifting through experiences of others on the site, we just need to make a decision as to whether we want to fire the current PM and hire a new one or if we should give our current one another chance. Regardless we both have determined we want to move more actively into real estate investing and take it to another level as a pathway into our "retirement career."

My question really points toward using a self directed IRA to fund our first purchase in this area. While a tough market, as many have said, one can find deals given a bit of patience. In terms of using the IRA, its the accounting of the debits/credits. I do have an accountant to confer with, but like most accountants at this time of the year, their time is at a premium. As well, how cumbersome is the process of moving the money to the third party in order to execute the funds?

In any case, I've found a property which I'm considering as possibly a good first step.  Anyone with thoughts and/or experience on this question, I would appreciate your thoughts.  

Lastly, Mindy, Brandon,  Josh, and Scott, thanks for the variety of topics on the podcasts.  They have been instrumental in bringing my wife on board and illustrating how we, too, could use real estate investing to our advantage.

Many thanks in advance...Jeff