Be sure to have funds you can tap in case of emergency or inevitable market dips. - Most Fortune 5000 (and others) companies do this.

From my experience, if I had started in real estate right after school, I would have very little network and little to no funds for the RE exam, CE classes, and networking registrations.

Financing seems to be tricky with IRA hence feel that its best to buy with self funding fully.

I agree with the others here that say you need to have some skin in the game, if you are going to live there yourself, get an FHA loan rather than owner financing, you can get a 3.5% down loan, personally I do not love these as they require  PMI which is an additional expense, and you also need  bring additional funds for closing at least for taxes, title, attorney and transfer fees . borrowing from anyone else for the down payment, to include a personal loan from the bank is not a good idea, those again will be higher int. rate.

A second mortgage or HELOC might allow you to unlock some funds without losing the 3.25% rate.- I recommend avoiding condos. 

Did you acquire the funds?

I have some funds in my 401(k), and I'm considering whether I should cash out some of them to help with the purchase.

A cash-out refi could allow you to set aside some funds as a reserve or at least pay down your debts so that your lines of credit (credit cards etc) can act as your emergency reserve when more bad things happen. 

We funded tradtional turnkey and we funded those that would do the lease option after i bought the asset for them they paid me off short term 60 to 90 day deals on my side.. then they would go the lease with option to buy..

Many experienced mentors in this group can help guide you in the right direction.I highly recommend saving as much as possible and setting aside a hedge fund for financial security.