In fact, we were damn near debt free in 2013, but thought it was a good idea to buy 2 new vehicles.  

Let us get some basics out of the way.An IRA - Traditional or Roth - Most common vehicle for retirement investments.Traditional IRARothTax deferral - Traditional IRA grows tax deferred - pay income tax as you take out distributions.

Once in a while you get an older person who has become dependent on it as a source of retirement income (hint hint btw: selling point of seller financing - a vehicle for retirement income).

But these are two totally completely different vehicles, which prompts me to say, maybe your experience as an agent will be different than the other 80-90%?

In your opinion please help me understand the benefits of each vehicle to defer taxes.  

The homeless are everywhere, the politicians worry more about fighting trump than local issues, we have a state school (evergreen) out of control, have a light rail tax that is basicly making us spend billions on a toy train set that will barely help our ridiculous trafic, the war on land lords, the gang war going on in south king county, etc...

Also I'm not sure what the "opportunity value" represents... investment vehicles with 10% ROI aren't just falling from the sky in my neck of the woods.

The way I looked at it (at the time) was that $4,500 invested in the stock market or any other investment vehicle would never earn me a $6,600 annual return.So, basically for $4,500 out of pocket, I purchased a 3/2 rental property in a good neighborhood, got a low-interest 30 year mortgage that the tenants are paying off, created $23,000 in equity, and net $6,600 (before taxes) per year.

Lots of other vehicles that create your financial picture that can help grow your net worth along with RE.I hope my response helps.

I'll tell you that the property is located in a small border town called Eagle Pass, Texas with no more than 35 thousand people. [434 Ryan Street, Eagle Pass Texas] Its location (in my opinion) is in an excellent spot known for weekend flea market activity and sits right across from a well-known local park; however, weekday vehicle and foot traffic is essentially non-existent.As far as the flea market goes she's been running into huge problems with vendors remaining loyal to their current flea market.