The agent is fairly new and wants the exposure to this market.

Here are some things you can do to mitigate the liquidity risk from these loan maturities:Cultivate and maintain a stable of private lenders and lender prospects so that you can bring one in to replace the lender that wants their funds.Along the same lines, use a number of lenders so that your exposure to any one lender is limited.Continually focus on building and improving your bankability.

Check out www.LearnToListREO.comThey sell a list of REO companies but also strategies to help your exposure when you're doing BPOs.The "Strategy Guide" is $25.

This means contacting heirs, beneficiaries and executors/administrators (personal representatives) directly and identifying the ones that are motivated to sell.My experience us that probate attorneys, in particular, prefer to see their estate client list a given property prior to sale in order to give it maximum exposure to the market, presumably to reduce the risk if a disgruntled heir becoming dissatisfied with the sale price and terms.This is not to say that it's impossible to buy starting with the attorney as the starting point, however you'll like continue to get the same response as in the past until you develop better business relationships with the BK and estate lawyers.

This tax pre-dates IRA plans and was enacted by congress to prevent tax-exempt entities from driving tax-paying businesses out of business.When an IRA uses leverage, there is another trust tax known as UDFI that applies to the profits derived from the non-IRA capital.The two taxes do not double up, and UBIT tax precedence of UDFI, but on a highly leveraged flip one could have exposure to both.If you want to go into tax-land, check out IRS publication 598.With that background aside, you could successfully put IRA money to work in real estate.  

Based on my limited exposure to the new construction space:Big time builders/developers are building at $70-90/sqftInstitutional restoration companies rebuild at around $100-125/sqft High-end prefab is going at about $150-190/sqftMulti-family prefab is going at $140-220/sqftWe have bids for high-end customs ranging from $210-250/sqft (just building to shell). 

For novice investors looking for more exposure to deals in their area, what is the best avenue or channel to find deals?

Why not get the most exposure as possible.

Scratch the LLC, that's just an ego thing until you've got something that increases your exposure, and when you have some assets to protect.I've bought and sold close to 100 properties, held as many as 16 rentals at one time, and I've NEVER had an LLC.

Learn the ropes while minimizing your exposure to loss.So, owner occupy and small multi or go the SFH route.