I can see the same small thinking.And I can see that a lot of newbie investors are doing real estate investing the hard way...the slow way and ironically, the slow & hard way is actually the risky way.Here's the Slow & Hard Way - which is also Risky1.

Last year my loan officer was so slow with everything asking for the same document multiples times, the goal was to close and buy on the same day, she made my family homeless for six days and it was awful.

@JoAnn Dorio You don’t have to pay capital gains in your self directed IRA so I would leave it in there as long as you can instead of taking the tax and penalty hit of withdrawing it early.

@Basit Siddiqi in CA, they say no state or federal deduction on contributions, however there an income tax when you withdraw for non-qualified expenses.

I'm holding off on certification, as although it is picking up, it is still moving slow and relatively new.   

I simply will not engage on text.. half the time they text you and don't even say who they are .. and its too slow.. 

So far, my only real estate experience has been slow flips of my primary residences, taking advantage of the VA loan program.

I guess all things considered they're not complete drawbacks because they help ensure you're making a good investment and that protects the bank and you but the main things I noticed is that closing will probably take longer, you have more stringent restrictions in terms of contractors you can use for even the smallest jobs, and because they constantly have to inspect that you're doing what you say you're doing having their inspectors come out to to survery everything before processing draw requests can also slow down your project.

Decided to get into it so I can do all the rehab myself at a slow pace. 

Appraisal was $525, and he gave them his account number as he was instructed so they could withdraw that amount.