2) Are you engaged in the trade or business of professional fishing? 

I kind of fell into that and I knew the person that rented my house...I will not be engaging in that again, I was lucky to have come out ahead.

I am a life long Hudson County resident and work there currently.While I have experience some experience in Real Estate, I am eager to learn more and hope to engage and learn as much as I can from the forums. 

That could be a great way to find and stay engaged with local investors and opportunities. http://www.biggerpockets.com/alertsYou can also search for other investors in that area and follow their journey on Bigger Pockets here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/search/usersBest of luck to you and look forward to following your journey!

Once you start to engage with your selected market, you'll start to pull in professionals like realtors and property managers.

But your message caused me to hit the google again :)  I'll tag you and post the links back on my other post where there was a little more engagement.

Try to engage with as many like minded individuals as you and those who have already done what you’re looking to accomplish.

There's much more around  technology engaged.

My advice would be to engage as much as you can here.

it is also difficult to engage in wholesaling with your IRA without providing services to the IRA, which may be why your current custodian is not willing to process such deals.Short term gap funding to an unrelated wholesaler or other such strategies may better fit within an IRA, where everything needs to be very much at arm's length, and where passive income is tax favored (as opposed to trade or business income such as this).