Investing in syndications, passively with an unrelated party (beware of UBIT if an IRA on both of those), or just hard money loans to third parties are all great ways to invest in real estate with a retirement account to minimize as many headaches as possible.

However, due to this delay we’ve experienced and the fact that property wasn’t occupied when I bought it, OCF sales team told me that they waive this “new-tenant finding fee” for me for my first tenant thus I was not charged.

I was forced to cash out my 401k in payments to minimize tax penalties, using it to complete house projects and pay off some debt.

Some may have minimal rental periods.  90 days is fairly common.   

Failure to do so only delays the response time, or you may not get one at all.

No contact whatsoever from the non-English speaking developer about the delay.

If your knowledge of construction is low, you'd otherwise be relying on the GC to do everything correct w/ a reasonable level of quality (inspectors just look for minimal code compliance).   

You will need it in place to submit offers, getting your POF/Approval letter, and will avoid delays once you have started the process.

But with showing minimal taxable income over the last 2 years, it's now hard to qualify for any type of traditional bank refinancing.

@Sean Ross  Yes, if outside of CA minimal management.