Im working on getting another appraiser over there in hopes i can get mid to high 6's Maybe try a BPO - this will be cheaper but not as detailed and should give you a general idea of the market - its much more expensive and time consuming to get an appraiser if your going to do multiple of them.  

Would love to hear what’s worked (or not worked) for others.

It's determined by the nature of your arrangement, mostly by how much you control the employee's work.

But IRS allows an IRA to be invested in anything except life insurance and collectibles.

The sooner that you can have crews actively working on-site, the better.

I work with investors that put about 10% down on BRRRR properties, I'd be happy to connect you with our lender. 

If so- what would you rate your work effort (not afraid of work), and the time to close a first deal?

And/or start with smaller multi-family properties, duplex, 4-plex, some of which usually work with a mix of LTR and STR units in the same building. 

I was thinking about buying the land (maybe it is 20-30k for the .25 acre lot), finding a builder in the area, and seeing if I could build a ~1,250 sq ft 3/2 single family house and see if I could make the math work. 

Long term/ short term rentals would work, ideally in the $400k range or lower.