And had I gotten wound up in some of these more obscure and niche strategies, I may never have ended up where I am today.

Well there is this one obscure tactic if you live in a Red state that could work but for you it's easier to take a loan from the existing 401K to start investing in hard assets.If you are conservatively using prudent leverage and finding decent deals there is no reason you should not be able to retire in 10 years or less and thus negating the very reason for these accounts that you can't touch till you are old.When you have money in these accounts it sounds good that you are not taxed on gains but you are restricted from getting a Fannie Mae loan.

There are these obscure items to be aware of so talk to an attorney before getting too wild.

Everything else was dark and obscure.

The primary function is to obscure the ownership beneficial interest(s) as a first level of asset protection.Several years ago CA legislators changed laws that previously allowed non-licensed entities to act as fiduciaries (trustees, in this case).

@Ana Coello You clearly have a knowledgeable agent lol since I've asked a few people and no one knew about this obscure law.I definitely consider it a loophole as the owner is getting lending on a single family house, yet the multiple tenants produce income as if the property were a multi family. 

Smith here is an obscure thought since you are local.  

But I would not use revocable trust as sole element as obscurity is a proactive measure, not a defensive one.

Give me a 40% loan on your personal residence then, stop paying me and you won't be able to count all the teeth showing on my smile at the foreclosure sale, which by the way will be in some very obscure, but public place hundreds of miles out in the middle of nowhere as I wouldn't take the chance of some other investor having the opportunity to put his name on that eviction notice when it gets posted.

The internet has been very helpful but also very obscure when it comes to explaining where to start as a developer.