. -  Houston, New Orleans, Tampa, Naples, Virginia Beach, Sacramento to name a few all are at risk for major flooding, often times properties are mapped out of the 100-year floodplain by political pressures, developers and community officials

They will often have a higher tax equivalent yield than a taxable savings or money market.

In our county tenants who were supposed to pay trash often are delinquent and city has to put liens on 1000s of homes every month. 

Inside each of those areas are 50-500 micro-markets that are all going to provide different results, returns, types of tenant.

@Jeremy Taggart how often can a VA loan be used and when would you recommend using VA loan over conventional or FHA.

-The moral issue you could run into is if your agent brought you the deal and you cut them out to submit an offer directly to the listing agent then you burn a bridge to save a couple grand-Too often people focus on the small commission paid to the realtor as an opportunity to cut costs when in reality the long term relationship with a good agent will bring you far more value.

People here on the South Shore do it frequently and often have multiple takers.

Normally, you would wanna separate your properties based on risks ( kind of tenants or area), value ( not more than 500k in one LLC), location, and other preferred methods. 

The % of tenant/buyers who actually purchase the property? 

It is an argument we hear often here on BP that, honestly, misses the mark for most investors.Your question is not, should I invest in real estate with cash or with an IRA, but rather; "I have an IRA and am considering whether investing it in real estate may be better than leaving it in the stock market?".