They will typically be a bit higher in rate then a Fannie/Freddie Loan and most will have prepayment penalties, but they also only cash flow the property instead of doing a "global cash flow" like Fannie and Freddie do.

Emphasis on the word 'good' the nature of internet leads will always be that many people are looking around and shopping around. 

Gary,Just a heads up, the City of Buffalo is cracking down on absentee landlords in general, but with special emphasis on the University Heights area.

I have a college degree in business with emphasis in real estate.  

If however you have lots more borrowing capacity than $40k (maybe even including using your own home as security), I really do like your idea "to fund (your) first investment (hopefully a multi unit property 4-10 units OUT OF STATE) by leveraging self directed IRA's" [The "out of state" emphasis was deliberately added because that IS what it might take to get the desired positive cash flow not readily found in CA - a point you already appear to have learned]. 

As more background on myself...I work for a global engineering/construction company. 

I sprinkled in some bold emphasis for the TL;DR crowd. 

I obtained my bachelor in Business Administration with an emphasis on Real Estate Investing in winter of 2013.

Over the past two weeks, I've probably listened to 30+ podcasts as I drive a good bit for work...Fast forward to today: Currently I work in sales for a global energy management company and focus on the commercial construction sector.

When global interest rates followed T-Bills on a fast upward trajectory, these countries defaulted on their debts.In today's global economy, when a country like Greece even sneezing in the general direction of a default can cause money institutions to panic, it makes me wonder how these same institutions would react to an interest-rate-related cascade failure due to interest rate hikes.