for fixed assets I have bought timber land in Oregon in my SIDRA and that worked great.. 

I own several personal assets and have a family so I absolutely want to protect against risk.I'm sure I missed some information that may help answer these questions, and am happy to provide additional information.

People use LLC for rentals as an asset protection vehicle.

I work as an Assistant Director of Operations for a Software company.

You are essentially turning your "liability" of a house into an asset by having it produce income.If you are near a college town, even better.

If a sponsor takes a bunch of fees upfront and little to nothing on the back end then they are rarely motivated to get top value out of the asset over time.

@Mike Loy, As a realtor you qualify for a Solo 401k, which has many advantages over self-directed IRA, here are few:Contribute 10X more than into an IRA (up to $61,000 per year per participant)Access up to $50,000 from your retirement account tax-free and penalties-free at any time prior to retirement via participant loan featureExempt from UDFI tax on leveraged real estateInvest tax-free using Roth 401k sub-accountCheckbook control without use of an LLC Custodian is not required = no custodian, transaction or asset based feesYou can read it in more details here:https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/2810/21298-sol...The bottom line is that if you qualify for Solo 401k - it would be way better than an IRA.

However, I do know that nothing is hands-off because you still have to asset manage the property.  

I spoke with more asset managers at banks regarding foreclosures, and sent more letters to peoples homes offering to buy them than I can ever remember.

RE your questions:1. the money can be easy, usually depends on loan amount and asset.2.