Hawaii was an idea to have a vacation rental, this would be also a home project, like buying a duplex to retire there.

Is it equity growth, cash flow, holding for retirement etc.??

Im completely new to property investment and my wife and I see it as our retirement plan for the future.

He has been in the game a long time and is nearing retirement and is tired of dealing with the upkeep. 

You want to be sure your funds are transferred to your new SDIRA form your current IRA/retirement plan custodian in time for an earnest money deposit to be sent out, as you cannot user personal funds for this.  

If I had a dollar for every 'no', I could retire already!  

Jeremy and Bryant, the reason we invested in Florida was for retirement.  

I've used simplified spreadsheets over the years and have altered them after finding and understanding things like cap rate, GRM, and a plethora of other RE goodies.Two years ago I realized I needed an income producing strategy for retirement.

This is necessary because I'm a couple of years away from retirement and don't look forward to the income reduction.  

But if you can suck it up for 5-10 years, you can probably build a strong enough financial foundation (capital for rentals) to retire from that career prematurely... hmm, sounds kind of like my own plan!