Another great way to profit from real estate, and defer income taxes, is to buy and borrower through a Self-Directed IRA, such as those offered by Advanta and Nu-View.

he could not provide answers to all the fees.I quickly decided to invest into things I know.Since my money was 'qualified' retirement money, I needed a self directed ira.

All stuff you probably already know, Steven, but spelling it out for the benefit of others.The great part of Bigger Pockets is people get to see more than one approach so they can figure out which would work best for them and also learn new ways to look at it.I advise the opposite approach-  I believe in buying the same multi family, renovating it, renting to get the cash flow and sell in a year and a day so instead of paying the 25-28% federal, 7% state and 12% SS (adjusted for self employee deduction) for an approx. 44% tax rate, I pay 15% federal and 7% state with no SS for a 22% capital gains rate. 

No education but self taught through always being willing to learn.

I have a natural draw towards the "flipping" sector, as my background tends to lead me in that direction, but at this point only consider this as a secondary form of investment, wanting to invest the majority of my time and money into buy and hold properties.My short-term goal would be to flip a few homes to help develop substantial capital to purchase my first multifamily property (triplex/quadplex), in which I would like to live/rent/self manage.

I am wondering though what financing options we can expect as we both recently moved back to the us, are between employment, and will likely be self-employed once we do find employment.  

Also, you need a combination of paid marketing and self-generated marketing in your business.  

I will be following up, and briefly introducing my self.

Who is allowed to make these recommended Escrow repairs .... can I my self pay out of my own pocket for these repairs, and thus avoid having to use a 203K loan ?

The income on the 1099 is taxed an earned income so you'll pay federal and state income taxes as well as 15.3% towards self-employment tax.