In my experience they are essentially the same: Crowdfunding deals are basically syndications but done over the Internet. 

The Purchase Price matters as that is what will determine your Cap Rate, Total ROI, and Cash-On-Cash ROI.

How can I determine if a market is too saturated to start investing?

The forum is full of posts about finding buyer's real estate agents and how to determine that they are good at working with investors.

Any such quid pro quo arrangement would be determined by the IRS to be a transaction between you and your plan, looking through the other person.You said it yourself "get cash out of these IRA's". 

@Emmanuel Ganidekam Hi Emanuelle, in order to determine profit or loss for your new deal (congratulations by the way…) we need to understand what you plan on doing with the property once you acquire.

SpencerTake some time to determine the niche you wish to invest in.

The lender I originally posted said that they use my current and past income to determine my pre qualification amount and the lender I just talked to that used 130k said that thats incorrect.

That's what happens with internet mortgage advice.

And since rent increases ultimately must come from inflation adjusted income increases, bodes well there too.Never been to Texas, that's just random 'big data' data point from an internet stranger.