Also be aware that if tenants have been used to living in town, after a while they may realize there are a lot of drawbacks to being out in the middle of nowhere & want to bail out.I also rent pasture acreage to some area farmers, but that's different. 

I think the big drawback will be that it's a townhouse. 

I think you'll find several drawbacks to trying to do this with an FHA loan though.  

The biggest drawbacks I see on your deal are the high taxes and relatively low rent. 

@Mike Hurney and @Russell Chin this is the main drawback...

My question is, are there drawbacks such as a broker not taking me as seriously as they would someone who took the class live; and/or learning less due to missing class discussions; or other?  

@Anja WehrmannThe only drawback of using borrowed funds to invest in real estate via a self-directed IRA is that UBIT applies; therefor, a solo 401k is generally a better fit since UBIT does not apply when investing a solo 401k with borrowed funds in real estate.

I’ve converted condos in other cities and haven’t experienced the drawbacks you mention.

HUD 223(f) does some drawbacks, however, such as high pre payment penalty, REAC inspections, HUD audits, and a surplus cash-flow calculation before distributions.  

So you can get most of the drawbacks of earlier homes without some of the positives.