Also, the seller does not want to pay for a termite inspection and I am not sure I want to carry that expense. ....would not doing so be a poor decision? 

And I have quite a bit of carry forward losses from previous years where I was limited to how much I could write off.And thanks for the insight.

And if I can get the seller to carry a second position note for up to 30% I would be able to gain ownership with little to no money Down.  

When I told them I had a 6 month refi source that had better terms for carrying the loan, they said that's fine since there was only a one time $175 fee up front, and no pre-payment penalty.They know exactly what I'm doing...and I have their full approval.

Putting $200K into a flip that returns you $10K would require you do to 4 deals a year to get 20% return. 4 deals and thin margins carry lots of risk.

We don't want to carry the financing and we don't want to have renters but I am ready to have just one mortgage again. 

I would also talk to your agent about a liability rider to Co er any accidents that may occur with the workers, just in case a GC or contractor isn't carrying the required insurance.

I believe you can do a SDIRA but I had heard that you don't get to write off the interest on loans you may be carrying on your rentals...that could be some bad info that was given to me.I ended up paying the state and federal taxes and my thought was to get some cash flow properties into my portfolio rather than having my money exposed to the stock market (just my thoughts though).An example of one of my rentals is positive cash flow per month of $500.

While I know it can carry by area, I agree that insurance rate is way high. 

Your idea in general is not a new one and it carries some other concerns of old operators doing seller financing.