By bringing your personal savings you are enabling your IRA engage in a transaction it otherwise not able to participate, this would be considered "prohibited" by the IRS.If you wish to stay out of trouble follow advice of @Daniel Dietz: make sure each transaction your IRA is involved with is "arms length" (no "disqualified person" is involved in the transaction). 

Regarding syndication as an option, as a LP/passive investor in a syndicate, would I likely have enough visibility into the process to gain enough experience to eventually enable me to be a sole (or more active) investor in those types of properties? 

Since we live in a such a high cost area (medium home price in the Santa Cruz County is $923,065) we required a deal with significant value add potential in order to enable us to refinance our money out at the end.

For me, eXp is ENABLING me to go full time, as well as help other newbies do the same.    

Technology advancements are enabling us to do mostly everything remotely, and there is no reason to think this will slow down.

Renting out the rooms should more than pay for the property, enabling you to live for free.Go for it!

It is WiFi enabled and requires no subscription.

I am quickly going beyond the limits of what I can manage with spreadsheets and think utilizing a database structure will enable me to become more efficient.  

It would enable renters to stay in their leases without catching up on months of back rent.https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/1...

. 💡 secure a roof over your head first which will pay for itself long term but enables you to leverage it as an asset to fund your next property acquisition.