Hard money is pretty common.

These are done between the buyer (you) and Seller.The situation that is most common to find these properties are in a foreclosure proceeding, or pre-foreclosure. 

In Columbus, you can still find the 1% rule and there's amazing appreciation potential due to how much population growth, job growth, and companies moving/developing there (recently Anduril just announced another 4,000 jobs coming to Columbus Ohio on top of Intel, Google, Amazon, FB, Nationwide, Ohio State University, etc.).

The 1031 exchange was done as a group irrespective of, and including the SDIRA status, as a tenant-in-common. 

It’s a common practice and I’ve never had any opposition to this provision.If you don’t have an operating company, you could get into contract in your own name and then assign it.  

Can they be more passive than having a 9-5 job?

Are you looking to make being a chicago real estate agent your full time job or just a side gig while continuing to work full time? 

We have a good sized portfolio and i left my corporate job in 2021. 

., get a higher paying job, work two jobs, go to trade school, get a higher paying degree, live in affordable area, etc...these are things that most of us did).

There is a lot of discussion about what jobs will be lost and created with AI.