I have also heard that a personal property trust can be funded by a self-directed IRA to buy real estate.Of course, you need to talk to your accountant and attorney about this, but I would be interested to hear what other investors have done.Thanks,Warren

People asks me to invest with their IRA funds - what do I need to know / prepare?

You can only use IRA funds for investment purposes.

We had IRA's, 401k and non tax advantaged mutual funds and a few stocks.

Have a lot more money in my pretax 401k I was planning to leave put, if possible to liquidate just roth account with my current companyCheers,Ben In a word, YES.I have used my Roth IRA and my TSP loan (401K equivalent) to purchase several properties.

The broker funding those loans with private money of many individual investors who are using their savings as well as self-directed IRAs.

I'm only 51 so tapping the IRA isn't an option.  

I want to get into investing, multifamily rentals and also a IRA for retirement, but I really have no idea where to start.

I cashed out all of the 15k principal from my roth IRA (amassed during grad school) for the down payment on a construction loan. 

Here's an example of someone using a self directed IRA to buy a townhome, where there are three tenant in common owners.