If you're not conducting the work yourself, contract with reputable and competent companies.

A real estate company told me the house needs too much work to rent out, and that an auction is the best course of action.

I would like to fund a fix and flip deal with a first lien position in Florida. 

Of course it is very important to do proper due diligence on the investment and the operator.As far as self-directed IRA there are number of companies offering such service, this topic has been discussed here on the forum many times so you should search using this keyword and learn from those discussions.

@Jonathan Grzeszczyk - I'm a flipper, investor and property management company owner in CT. 

They don't talk about state specific title companies and contracts.

The company I'm looking at changes 10% just wanna get some info! 

Securing funding has been challenging, particularly because my business documents reflect low revenue from only one duplex, and I am currently between jobs.I have identified a reasonably priced piece of land and have saved a small portion of the funds from my duplex sale to invest in this venture.

Myself I used my own internal funds to prove my model.

I've used my own money so far and interested in learning more about the funding side of things.