I had plenty of reserves and Engelo’s partner, Bryan, briefly mentioned in one email that OCF had motivation to ensure the duplex was rented because it would cost them money.

I have been working in the financial services industry for almost 10 years now and thus had quite some exposure to other areas of investing (from private markets to public markets).

i.e. his cash your services he or she needs

They pay for the trash service but the dumpster is on my property.  

<-- income capped, meaning middle class and modest income only, but HUGE for those below the threshold.Mortgage interest deduction.Property tax deduction.Being able to write-off maintenance/repairs on your rental properties.For Californians, Prop 13 is a huge boon to buy-and-hold REI.There's a reason that entire books, intended for the middle class and others that aren't paying $10k/yr for CPA services, have literally been written about how to maximize tax goodies associated with owning real estate. 

oh and THANK YOU for your service.

I guess I have reservations and much novice skills about SDIRA's but I know I can builds for less than most here anyway.

However, I went to the first meeting and the main speaker was an out-of-town guy giving a super high-pressure sales job for some MLM program called "Financial Education Services Protection", which didn't actually have anything to do with real estate, other than he was pitching us to pressure credit challenged prospects into buying this (my opinion) predatory program.

Some elements that will make a condo non-warrantable are:* High investor ratio* Insufficient reserves/Bad financials* Litigation* Buying as investment vs primary/2ndWhen the condo is deemed non-warrantable for the specific transaction, then the only financing option left is a non-warrantable condo portfolio loan.Hope this helps.

If your debt is being paid at a high rate, your best investment probably would be to pay that down, not even considering other factors like stress, credit score, or safety reserve should something with REI go wrong.With that being said, if you can find a great deal, your expected return on that might be significantly better than your student loan costs, and therefore it would be prudent to jump at such an opportunity.Good luck!