And yes, I would rather have a property producing 28% returns in my IRA than a promissory note at 12% or, say, shares of a mutual fund.Since taxes are not paid on the rental income received by the IRA, there is no need for deductions against that income.  

How much income does this property produce (or should produce, if landlord hasn't raised rents in a long time)?

Does your team produce leads?

I wouldn't be surprised if this deal has fallen apart, but would produce a lot of lessons learned.

(I also have enough salary to cover payments if they become empty) I would reccomend you holdout for something at the very least that produces income over 1%(after taxes and insurance) of purchase price per month.

As long as you are adhering to IRS guidelines (not living in the house, not performing "sweat equity", etc.) you can choose from a wide range of income-producing properties to diversify your self-directed retirement plan.

etc...If you're interested in a cash flow property, make sure you get a high income producing property.

I want to diversify the areas that I invest in, but my strategy is different from yours in that I prefer lower cost properties that tend to produce high cap rates.

My advice is to have the tenants put all utilities in their name and produce the account numbers BEFORE you give them the keys.

In economics 101, the more you produce of an item, the average cost goes down.