We would love to leave our jobs but are willing to stay to facilitate things.

That golden rule pretty much applies to those investors who are really doing nothing more than facilitating transactions, using other peoples money in a short period of time from the time an asset is acquired to disposing of interests that fund the transaction.

And all of that is facilitated by the fact that my wife and I have our licenses, so we can manage our half of the transaction *AND* give the listing agent a bigger commission (we just give up some or all of our half of the commission).Btw, we've also had listing agents tell us what we need to offer in order to win multiple listing situations, but this isn't something I would ever ask (or expect) of a listing agent.

Houses aren't fungible like airline tickets or hotel rooms.You are equating the services of a real estate agent to that of a marketing platform and transaction facilitator both of which are certainly vulnerable to technological efficiencies. 

I also just got (days ago) approved for an Australian AMEX card using my established good credit history here (I live in Australia).Now I want to use American Express's service where they facilitate an application for credit in a new country (the US in my case) using one's established credit in one's home country (Australia for me).  

I'm getting close to the point where I will be looking for "facilitators" (accountant; tax lawyers) that will help me roll over funds and set it up but I've yet to determine the best aspect of real estate investing to focus on.

They would be happy to live in the rentals in the off season if needed to facilitate the plan and Ideally would like to own a lake house, house by the ocean (in town), and a home in their midwest city. 

Not all custodians are setup to facilitate real estate investments which is where the Self-directed IRA comes into play.Please don't get overwhelmed by the in-depth discussion on UBIT/UDFI.

Then your partner can facilitate the sale.

I assume you wont be traveling to America to facilitate the process.