Has anyone compared the SD 401k to the SD IRA?

You can get the rewards without the risk.

Right now you are pumped up over the dollars you are seeing, and not taking note of the risk vs reward.

Ozzy,as mentioned above look for reputable hard money lenders in your own area and many lenders offer what Norris group does. at the end of the day with any investment you want to be very low risk and high margin.Most people look at real estate as high risk, high reward and I am very anti that, with every investment comes risk, now it all depends how you want to handle that risk, either by pass it(don't even invest into it) or simply minimize it by making sure its very low risk.Real estate investments are NOT passive at all unless you just hand over your money to someone and let them do every thing and make sure they pay you back plus interest and there is recourse, you also want to look into as if you ever needed to liquidate how fast can you be out and how much control can you have over it.

My ambition is either going to reward me or kill me....we shall see!

There is one here on the sight that looks pretty solid if not overkill compared to what I have been sent on prospective properties.Also, anyone in particular you recommend for Land Lord property insurance?

Also, we have realized that everytime we get a 'good deal' on one of the houses on the street (below PVA and market value) it helps on the next purchase on the street because it is a lower comp to compare to and justify the lower offer/purchase price.

@Steve - Yes, the rents compared to prices seems very good to me, especially considering that I'd have to buy the same house for $70-$110 in a slightly better neighborhood, but I wouldn't get much more in rent despite that.

If you have completed any amount of short sales you do upfront work first to not waste time.Never take what a seller says at face value.They will tell you anything to try and get help to solve a problem but the issue is they don't know they are hurting instead of helping.The problem with sellers is at first they are motivated to do a short sale.Then as time goes on and credit is ruined and they have moved out they become emotionally detached from the property.The buyer have unrealistic time lines to close for a short sale.You need to know if your market is declining,flat,or appreciating every month.If it's appreciating or flat the benefit is to the buyer.If it is declining the benefit is to the bank because by the time it close it might have lost 5 to 10 percent of value from the contract price.Your bank actually moved pretty quick with the short sale compared to some others.A buyer and a seller need to understand it could take 3 to 6 months or longer to do a short sale.A friend of mine that is another broker in Florida has completed over 800 short sales.He is a master at them.I did residential for a few years but then moved to commercial so I haven't kept up with all the regulatory junk on the residential side.He does all residential and does not take the short sale unless the seller agrees to certain conditions from the beginning.

I would be interested to hear more from others on forecasts, both residential and commercial, backed by data be it comparative or analytically.