@Jerry Chilimidos Yes, you can use your SDIRA for hard money lending, with income going back into your SDIRA tax-deferred or tax-free (unless the activity rises to trade or business, then you might be exposed to UBTI).

The triplex is much more popular with traveling work crews for specialists in the trades and insurance relocations, so if we were to do it again, I would probably worry less about making each room it's own rentable space and save a little bit of those costs. 

You could try to value it with the income approach, with NOI & DSCR, but that usually isn't done with smaller multifamily.You're going to have to extrapolate out farther and see where other smaller multifamilies have traded.

The owners who switch to a PM come to me for the same reasons Drew said above.It is not rocket science, most folks hit a point where they no longer want to trade their time for money. 

Flipping is more than likely to be considered trade or business.2) Rentals: Rentals are not considered trade or business for this purpose, so initial inventory costs cannot be deducted as travel expenses.

I traded up for a 7 unit apartment building.

Again even if you have great credit as you start to add more credit cards, mortgages, auto loans to your credit you can also be viewed as "High risk" due to Excessive trade lines in credit or higher DTI - debt to income ratios. 

But the rental too does have to meet the "active conduct of a trade or business" threshold, which does mean you wouldn't qualify to use section 179 if you have a rental that is managed entirely by someone else and you aren't at least overseeing it and making decisions about the management of it.I mostly disagree with the reply suggesting that you need to have an LLC to take the section 179 deduction. 

To answer your last question, my realtor has contractor contacts I should be able to leverage for rehab budget estimates, as well as family friends with experience in the construction trades.

Always have backup subs as well, and in my case I have spent time learning all the trades so in a bind I can fill in and get it done myself if I have to.