I am reading a bunch of real estate investing books , talking to realtors & loan officers, and trying to educate myself best I can.I'm also looking to expand my network within the real estate investing community, and I believe this is a great opportunity to connect.

Keep in mind, you can’t use personal funds or your home's equity to directly fund the SDIRA investment, and all property expenses must be paid from the IRA.

Considering your situation, I would try to find deals on Facebook, saved zillow/realtor search notifications, etc.

Try to get preapproved from a local loan broker or Co-op. 

@Paige Gardner why don't you share more about what you are trying to do?

I'm trying to pinpoint my financial strategy in attaining these projects and HMLs are always suggested to me.My goal this year is to buy my first investment.

Welcome, take a look around, and don't be shy -- we try not to bite TOO hard!

One middling program I got into, I later learned the founder was trying to get out of managing real estate because "it was hard" so he decided to teach real estate investing instead. 

Since you are showing EXACTLY how to play this game, it seems you would include terminology that would point me EXACTLY to the call to action that you are trying to market.I'm probably missing something here.

Even if the rental has a decent cash flow with additional flood insurance, we're still not sure we want to take on that risk as we are out-of-state investors (planning to move back to KY in the future, but not now) and we don't like that it will potentially bring down the perceived value when we try to sell it in the future.The seller has never lived there and has not provided any information on if it has flooded before or not.