One thing to think about and plan for is that if you cash out the $120k inherited IRA, yes your marginal income goes up $120k for this year, but if you don't have the appropriate amount of taxes withheld from the distribution (some places may force you to withhold taxes-ask your custodian) you will owe quarterly tax payments for 2010 based on an income that is $120k higher this year than normal.

Now, in addition to the IRA quarterly maintenance and filing fees we keep getting emails stating that we need to pay a yearly fee for them to be our transaction reviewer.

The fourth pillar is somewhat similar - you want to separate your operations from your assets.

Personally I would be most interested in buy and hold rentals (or lease options), but any type of data collection can have application for the other types of strategy in the end (exit strategy contingencies, etc.).I agree that local news is a good source, though it is generally lagging (by about a quarter in most cases). 

That is a quarter of your investment

Since I’m new in real estate, and at my age, I would like to generate a supplemental income in my retirement even if it’s just one or two properties a quarter.

In hindsight, it's way more sensible to drywall over the walls with quarter inch or half inch drywall.

I told him my fee was 30k per duplex.. so that was my listing agreement  330k each  30k flat fee commission.I took them all to the SF bay area and sold them all in one weekend.. they closed up over 60 days.. so that was a nice 660k in COMMISSION revenue for that quarter.. now I had at least 100k in expenses I had to  front 50k for marketing the event.. but it worked..

If you do it yourself, you don't have to pay yourself but you're also more likely to make a mistake.Also, keep in mind that since most REITS are public companies they have to publish audited quarterly reports telling you how much money/return they made or lost for you.

Once I deploy I will be able to rent out the fourth unit and ideally receive positive cash flow from all four units.