I still have enough room with my VA entitlement for a buy and hold in a couple of years, so I'd rather save it for later!

With an SDIRA, you can invest in long-term rentals while preserving your retirement savings, but you must follow strict IRS rules:1.

Lowe's just came out with their biggest appliance sale of the year- up to 40% off. And if you join Lowe's Pros, you'll get an additional discount (it's free to join). I believe that the sale goes through February 12th...

Do you have a current need for that cash flow generated from the tax savings?

@James Tobin  house hacking is a GREAT way to start.

Was fortunate, due to savings throughout military deployments to appropriately save and fund two properties back to back.

Start eviction process the moment you can.

Hopefully, not an expensive tenant or Fair Housing lawsuit.100% of what @Travis Biziorek states is true, but he left out a key fact - he lived in the Detroit area when he started investing here, so was able to self-manage and meet everyone he had to hire face-to-face.

Starting off you will not do a zero sum investment plus get other people to invest.  

I will start from the offer stage.