Perhaps something happens and you need to sue the PM to try to get those funds.

Most real buyers will have agents and will put it in their offer that the payment for the buyer agent come from the settlement funds.

We now budget for vacations, home improvements, car savings, medical savings, Christmas fund, etc... 

Why do syndication sponsors go to all the trouble of working with LPs to incrementally raise funds? 

b) Buy a cash flowing property in the Midwest for under $200k with 20% down AND house hack a duplex/triplex possibly in Albany,                        NY.                2) Wait another year to build more equity and get a HELOC @ 90% ltv and use those funds to buy more multifamily properties and keep my current cash flowing property.Looking forward to hearing from ya'll!

my clients i fund in Chicago ( south side ) all use the Dawg system but as you know theft is just rampant there and its leaking out to better areas all through the US now.. 

You may have a skill-set that could be helpful in partnering with someone in either long or shorter term projects, or if you have some funds, you could go completely passive and be a limited partner on a larger deal and let those who have the time and skills manage the project actively.More important is starting to network with local investors and get to know your market, your players and find out who is doing a good volume of work in the area you might be interested in- (multi-family long term holds, fix and flips, etc).

You can combine the funds, but I recommend you keep them separate.

My onlyl tip is check out self directed IRA discusions here.

What types of funding structures have you found most effective for scaling your real estate portfolio?