I have been consuming all the information I can on the topic, but was hoping to get some real life examples of people who have done the same thing I am considering doing.What I want to do is roll my 401k, which from what I've heard/read will become an IRA after I leave the company, into a self-directed IRA. 

A mortgage loan officer can work for different type of structures... banker, consumer direct, retail, broker.Pre-licensing to get your MLO license is a minimum of 20 hours... the rest depends on your state. https://nationwidelicensingsystem.org/slr/Pages/default.aspx

@Jocquinn Inmon If you are sending fewer than 200 you can start by typing up a letter and doing it yourself.

Obviously, there are extenuating circumstances when a consumer decides on BK and maybe beyond your control.

@Chris Hughes, str’s are very time consuming when compared to LTR.I’d add more LTR’s (slowly) and watch the positive cash flow roll in. 

It strikes me that discovering whether a property is in a natural hazard zone might be a task which is both:   a) time-consuming to do manually for each of the agent's listed properties, and   b) super-important for the agent to perform correctly, from a liability standpoint.I'd love the opinions of any real estate agents in this forum on this topic:  1) How much time do you spend on these disclosures for a single transaction, in terms of both due diligence/research/looking up records and also filling out the required disclosure forms? 

Based on the above, it seems like the inspection process is both time-consuming to do manually for each of the agent's listed properties, and super-important for the agent to perform correctly from a liability standpoint:a) If the agent marks "NO" (as in the property does not fall within any of the listed hazard zones) when a "YES" would be more appropriate, the transaction could be cancelled by the buyer due to mis-representation of the property.b) If the agent marks "YES" when a "NO" may be more appropriate, the buyer may be needlessly scared away and the deal could collapse for no reason.I'd love the opinions of any real estate agents in this forum on this topic: 1) How much time do you spend on these disclosures for a single transaction, in terms of both due diligence/research/looking up records and also filling out the required disclosure forms?

Try to remember that some of it is gold, and some of it is garbage and develop the skill of critiquing the information you consume. 

Without them I would not be able to consume even a tenth of the information I do.  

A lot of business sources I've consumed recommend doing things "that don't scale" as a competitive advantage over the big players in a niche.