That said, I'm sure you hope to live to be 59 and older, and having a big fat pile of tax sheltered income to draw from at that point in time would be a benefit, even if you have done other things to allow you to leave the rat race at an earlier age.With a self-directed IRA, you can diversify any existing savings into real estate and potentially get better results than investing in conventional financial products.  

So I've put Etowah on the back burner, for now.  

What you'll get is a fat legal fee from some sleazey attorney, but your house still won't be sold.Third issue you raise:  option money is nonrefundable, period.  

Turns out this Indian couple loves to make lentil soup, and spillage clogs up the burners.

Sometimes (like now) the deals aren't that fat.

However let’s not forget that the fat cats in Washington D.C. and beyond are the ones that created it, not me.

There is no difference between filling the water line between the heater and the faucet with a tank holding 30 gals of hot water and a burner producing hot water.

This is currently the track we're on which wouldn't be possible if we saddled ourselves with a fat mortgage payment not to mention having to save for the down payment.

Tenants are slobs who care for things like they belong to someone else (and not to themselves personally)...Im always getting calls about stove burners, and 100% of the time its because they spilled somethig on it, then it calcified because they aren't capable of cleaning...so as my current round of stoves wears out...I'm pitching them and then the tenant can supply their own fridge and stove.

A big fat W-2 will help you get good loans for your first few deals, and also you can always house hack.