@Alan HonThis sounds great!

Thanks for reaching out again.Would love to get involved and a free pass sounds great!

And it sounds like a good deal based on the 1% rule, that for every 10k in purchase price, you get 1% or 1 dollar in rent in return.

.- i'd encourage you to consider doing as big a deal you comfortably can with the amount of capital you have, vs trying to start off unnecessarily small. make sure you account for a personal reserve, a reserve for the future property, and closing costs, THEN see what's left over for a down payment. also note that while there are creative ways to buy tons of RE with little $, they demand A LOT of time and energy, which it sounds like you guys may not be looking to invest right now. - driving distance vs long distance: try to map out exactly what situations this would benefit you in. could either of you guys logistically drop everything to drive multiple hours away?

Sounds like you learned some hard stuff that I would benefit by hearing more from you on what you learned. 

Sounds like the realator is just trying to insert themselves into the build contract so they can either get some sort of kickback and/or convince the client to award the contract to them instead.

It sounds like a refinance would be a good option for you, but I'd just make sure with our current interest rate options out there that the monthly payment on that new loan would makes sense. 

Look at the whole market and all the factors that would effect income potential. 

The best place to start would be with your IRA custodian.A checkbook IRA would eliminate this issue, and is generally a more effective and efficient tool for IRA investments into rental property. 

It may sound nice to pay a 6% management fee but the extra fees can add up to be more than the other company that charges 10% with no additional fees.