I'm Josh and I'm a musician looking to get into real estate here very soon.

It's not as easy as HGTV or the infomercials will have you believe but it will enable you to attain financial freedom if you put in the time & effort. 

A SDIRA investment would forgo the benefit of non-cash expenses (depreciation) but would enable the investor to defer taxes until IRA distributions are made.

This will enable me to focus on my goal of acquiring buy and hold properties to build a consistent recurring income.

<soapbox>The purpose of the "50% rule" {of thumb} is to enable you to quickly triage candidate properties and dispense with those for which a deal simply could not work.  

I am currently a social worker and a musician (make somewhere between $50-70k), so ultimately it wouldn't take THAT much money to replace that income, but I have no expectation that this process will take place overnight.

The things I have learned in the last month have only better prepared me for success and enabled me to more confidently pursue my goals.

So, on the one hand it would add value/increase our equity perhaps enabling us to get a HELOC and eliminate PMI.

It takes a lot to get past the attitude that willingness, a downpayment and credit should enable (entitle) one to buy rental real estate. 

Once they leave, you re-enable the alarm or delete that temp code.