I want to get into Real Estate to ultimately achieve financial freedom but am overwhelmed at the idea of where to start. 

Ultimately it is up to you how you want to approach it.

Ultimately many of the regulations hurt the small banks and consumers the most.

I absolutely would love to hear more about the benefits of a SDIRA... and you driven the nail into the point that I was wondering (IRA's are good for stocks and bond investments while SDIRA's are good for investments in other vehicles, ultimately making it beneficial to have both kinds of IRA's for diversification purposes.)I will definitely reach out to you to follow-up in the near future.

You never want to start looking at properties that are ultimately going to be out of your price range, so a pre-approval helps to get you focused financially.

Ultimately did the purchase (though it was tricky since the replacement property was bought in a single-member LLC). 

I’m currently in school to become a nurse, but my ultimate goal is to invest in real state the soonest I’m done with my schooling.

Ultimately, my wife and I decided to rent while relocating to the area and allow ourselves to become familiar with the market.

There's perks to both of those, but definitely higher cash flow elsewhere.Ignoring logistics of which market and what market has what right now....what would you ultimate goal for a property be?

Ultimately - how it gets reports on your tax return is intent.