I now have the ability to look at "tired" properties with a different eye! 

I am very interested in using real estate as an investment vehicle and I want to get started early.

Being apathetic and sayIng It does not affect me is generally good advise till the one tenant gets tired of the crap from the nutcase neighbors and theIr kIds so he up and leaves .

You may not personally benefit such as by drawing income from the rental personally, nor may you inject value into the IRA through the provision of goods or services such as performing work on the property.Basically, you get to be a fund manager and deploy your retirement savings into an asset class you know and understand with these vehicles. 

Jon,You can certainly setup a vehicle such as you propose. 

Rarely is the current LL a fool when it comes to rental rates; but he/she may just have gotten tired or fed up with the whole thing-it happens.

The rest goes towards our mortgage or vehicles and we carry no credit card debt with a combined $14k we owe on both of our vehicles.We are now looking to start purchasing rentals to expand our portfolio.

Right now, your retirement plan most likely has minimal choices to invest in (some stock funds, bonds, ETFs if you are lucky) so you are rather limited in choosing an investment vehicle that will help you reach your goals.From first hand experience, I can tell you that getting a solo 401k was rather easy and I have checks that I write to pay for properties free and clear or to put a down payment if I want to get a loan.

I'm tired of losing deals that I find on the MLS!

You still need to kick the tires.