I included stats on percent unleveraged purchases and that many of those fairly low percent cash purchases in fact use unseen leverage HML, private lending, etc and some are short term cash holds such as a flip or a brrrr that gets financed not long after purchase.  

Quote from @Michael Smythe: Besides MANY self-labeled "gurus" exaggerating their success, many of them just supply readily available info.If you're too busy to find the info and are willing to pay for it, no problem as you accept their time vs money solution.REGARDING S8 GURU ISSUES SPECIFICALLYMost of them don't share all the facts about how Section 8 actually works.They claim you can get HIGHER rent from S8 tenants vs private-paying tenants.Why would the government allow our tax dollars to be spent this way?

with private and HML  the deal is done all at once.. 

The prior owner converted the garage into a 2b/1ba private suite (so now I have a 6bed 4bath home - but no garage) a garage is important to add value to the home.Here's to a prosperous 2025!

I think the biggest mistake that people make, is thinking that investing in STR´s is some totally different style of real estate. 

The duplex has done well because it has a great backyard/garden area and each unit has a private deck and W/D.

@Luke H.Hi Luke,  As a private money lender myself I will focus on one element of your deal---5 years is a long time to be finally paid. 

I’m new to BiggerPockets and I’m a private money lender.

One thing I was considering was an LLC/S-corp style entity where I can manage it while they get equity.

Actually the IRS does not tell us what we can invest in, only what is disallowed (life insurance contracts and collectibles).Allowable investments for SDIRA investing include the following:Residential real estate, including: apartments, single family homes, and duplexesCommercial real estate Undeveloped or raw landREITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts)Real estate notes (mortgages and deeds of trusts)Promissory notes Private limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and C corporationsTax lien certificatesOil and gas investmentsPrivate stock offerings, private placementsJudgments/structured settlementsGold bullion Factoring investments