She also checked the last 6 appraisals she has seen on winterized HUD properties and only one had noted that the power was on (no mention of water on any of them) during the appraisal... 

I’m going to wait this real estate market out for at least 3-6 months.

Quote from @Renee Coss: Funny you mentioned out of state, I have been considering investing out of state.  

Like you mentioned, there are lot fees that need to be paid monthly.

It does not make any sense whatsoever to wait.

I would also note your mention of not wanting liability, but offering to "co-sign".

@James Mc Ree the example I mentioned above was for a 1st position note. 

Hi @Tim Holt I think in general house hacking is usually a good move because it gets you off the sidelines and into the game with the most favorable financing possible (30 year fixed).There's a lot of value in getting started today vs waiting some undefined number of years until conditions are better, which could be a long time from now, because real estate is a business and the sooner you start actually learning about that business, the better.With all that said, I always recommend that people analyze any potential house hack as a pure investment that they aren't going to live in, because someday they may want to move out and you should know up front (before you commit) whether you're going to be able to do that, or whether you're overpaying and will be stuck in the property unable to move out because it'll be cash flow negative if you do.So you had it exactly right when you wrote, "the property would need to cash flow when I move out and rent out all units."

We had to wait maybe 2 months to see if we were going to get it and luckily the owner let us rent it while we were waiting.

As mentioned the main downside to using a SDIRA to purchase properties is you get no tax benefit upside (depreciation) and have to pay taxes on UDFI.