One of my best clients has a combination of both, works well for them. 

Hi @Renata McCulloch & @Cameron Sigurdson to get a good quality note you should be prepared to have more like $50K available, although your IRA can partner with another party to combine funds to take down a note via joint venture.

One benefit of direct MLS access is the many filters I can use in different combinations in order to find hidden gems.  

Also, if you have a more modern unit, they have some pretty trendy patterns available, just FYI, and your higher-end tenants might appreciate it. 

Is it a good idea to purchase homes seperately to avoid the 10 mortgage rule or should we focus instead on our combines income to reduce the debt to income ratio?

Interesting, compared to this - "The National Association of Realtors estimates that the country’s supply of for-sale and rental units combined is 3 million units short of current demand."

I am going to the new company but once I get officially "laid off" I want to combine my 401k with my IRAs and invest.

A vast majority of my acquisitions come from a combination of private investor funds and my own capital. 

You can use the calculators on here to present the deal to a buyer(free for 3 uses unless you upgrade to a pro account) with a breakdown of the estimates(you want to be as accurate as possible), and you can find templates for the contracts here(but your contract should be reviewed by an attorney in your area), and there are plenty of list services(a lot of people mention List Source) and direct mail services(sometimes combined with list services).

@Dave Foster,  so you can have a TIC combined under one entity?