I am also a huge fan of real estate and for the past 50 years there's been a way to combine both.By leveraging a Self-Directed IRA, real estate investors enjoy both the traditional advantages of property ownership and the additional tax benefits of retirement accounts, creating a powerful wealth-building strategy.

I actually think it is a benefit to both parties to have professional representation to assist the seller and buyer with these types of transactions.

You can always consider doing a cost seg study on a property that you buy and that can also help with tax benefits if you cannot qualify for the real estate professional status.

Plus by going with you, they won't have the benefit of an agent's errors and omissions insurance, the support of their brokerage, and the experience an agent has in protecting their clients from everything that can go wrong in real estate transactions.

Is there a way to utilize the "gift" feature illustrated in the tax code? 

The benefit to these is you get your foot into the door without a ton of capital and as time goes you can move out and cashflow on the property.

Britt,My firm has evaluated some smaller properties (under $500k) in the past for cost segregation, and it generally does not cost justify moving forward, since the benefits are small, and typically the tax liability on the income is minimal if any.

EVERYONE is trying to crack the motivated seller code with technology or other voodoo tactics but they fail to realize that the inherent simple characteristic of "motivation" is exactly that it can't be equated, formulated or coded.Motivation is not about "if you exhibit characteristics "X", "Y", and "Z", you have a higher chance of being a motivated seller". 

We had to bring the 1925 house to 2023 code which involved un-installing 26 windows that were already nicely installed (in appearance) in the house, reframing them to 2023 standards (at the time) which also involved strapping the bottom of the wood framing with metal straps (mind you this all after we had already completed the inside renovation).  

@Greg ReeseMost small investors will benefit by having the LLC created in the state where the property is located at.Creating an LLC in a state like Nevada, Delaware, Wyoming may be better for the big players if items such as charging orders, business friendly case law, anonymity are important to you.However, be mindful that setting up LLC's in those states will add to your costs as you may have increased annual fees for annual LLC fees + registered agent fees.