While both involve finding and properly securing a site and bringing it to full entitlement, the ground-up process includes the land piece but gets way more involved and complex to execute.The full "Monty" for ground-up development needs to include financial literacy, an explanation of metrics, and how they work.

BarronFrom my experience, selling a property can free up equity for reinvestment but might disrupt tenants or result in losing a valuable asset.

I did purchase my lot in cash.For the financial side, there are different options, and I am far from an expert. 

That area in PA can also work for STR and MTR so if you buy a 4-unit, you have the option of diversifying the asset inside of itself by doing 2 LTR, 1 STR, and 1 MTR if you wanted to give yourself some options.

@Matthew Beninate Relay Financial is who I use.

Regardless, you might find the copy & paste info below helpful:)--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.Property Class will typically dictate the Class of tenant you get, which greatly IMPACTS rental income stability and property maintenance/damage by tenants.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.If you buy/renovate a property in Class D area to Class A standards, what quality of tenant will you get?

@Jonathan Chan Here is a list of allowable assets for SDIRA investing. 

I will give you the common-sense answer below, but this is California, where common sense doesn't exist.A mandatory evacuation is outside of your control, so you shouldn't suffer financially because of it.

I’m ready to start investing in my personal life to achieve that financial freedom! 

I’d think long and hard about this and possibly set up financial parameters for who is responsible.