I believe they will let me assist them with managing and helping grow the investments, but am worried about making any moves since I have no direct investment experience of my own. 

It’s a great reminder to trust your own due diligence and not let others make critical decisions for you, like hiring a property manager.For future investments, building a trusted team and maintaining direct oversight is key, even with remote deals.

Starting small with multifamily properties is my ideal preference at the moment, as I focus on learning, growing, and immersing myself in as much information, data, and real-time experience as possible.As I build my investment portfolio, I could definitely see myself being interested in scaling up to larger acquisitions in the future, but for now, my focus is on mastering the fundamentals and starting small.

Keep wasting your time then and looking at MLS deals ;) You can make more money and actually get deals going direct to the seller instead of this.

Quote from @Maria Jeanette: I am considering using Equity Trust to set up a self-directed IRA to purchase properties.

There was an article published in Sept 2024 that showed the average consumer would save over $10,000 by working with a broker vs a direct lender over the life of their loan.

great resource; appreciate the direction :) 

Just make sure you take your policy to the brokers so they can do a direct comparison.Maybe hit up your primary home insurer to see if they offer a STR policy.

That's been the direction since covid. 

Stop reading if you want.2) I couldn’t guess what “There is a 6 months of grace period before interest payment begins” means.3) They call their $3555 charge a “Loan Fee,” stated a few lines up as 2%. 2% of $235,000 (loan amount) is $4470.4) Do you seriously believe the loan fee, “… IS 100% REFUNDABLE IF THERE IS ANY DEFAULT FROM THEPART OF THE LENDER OR IF THE BORROWER CHOOSES TO TERMINATE THE LOAN.”5) It’s okay to pay an appraiser directly.