Tax sheltering of income comes with some trade-offs with respect to your level of involvement and the nature of certain activities.When we are thinking along the lines of "I can do X in real estate" and comparing how that works in an IRA, it can sometimes be disappointing.When you take the approach of "my IRA invested in a property, note. etc. that is passive and arm's length is SO MUCH BETTER than when the IRA was caged into the stock market", that can put a smile on your face.

How do you guys go about renting to college students and ensuring you are finding tenants that will be respectful of the place (i.e. not trash it and throw parties?)

Any seller will respect someone that comes to the table with a real offer.

Local banks like Beacon Bank, Suntrust, Renasant Bank, Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, and UCBI are good choices for investors and carry either commercial or portfolio type loans respectively.  

I respectfully ask that you not post about how it’s not advisable to loan money to family, etc.Idea:Mom secures a $1m line of credit via HELOC(s) (I think two HELOCs would be necessary to achieve $1m because as far as I can tell most lenders limit HELOCs to $500k).

If they've been a respectful tenant, you could also deduct the reduction from their security deposit which is permissible in California:"California Civil Code Section 1950.5 only permits a landlord to use a tenant's security deposit to pay for the costs of: (1) unpaid rent; (2) cleaning the rental unit after you vacate (but only to what it was before you moved in); (3) repairing damage caused by the tenant that goes beyond normal wear and tear; and (4) ...

I also don't think that any respectable farmer would pay $8,000.00 per year to use the land as a dump, considering farmers are renting the land to make money. 3.

I mean this in the up most respectable way. 

I probably should have taken more time to explain.In any case, I really respect that you are using your business to help people.  

In addition, if you are self-employed with no full-time employees you may wish to consider opening a Solo 401k instead of a self-directed IRA as it has several advantages over an IRA LLC such as much higher contribution limits, direct checkbook control (i.e. no need to have the account at a specialty trust company), ability to take a 401k loan, exclusion from unrelated debt finance income tax with respect to investment in real estate acquired with non-recourse financing, etc.In addition, please note if you purchase debt-financed real estate with your IRA, unrelated debt finance income tax should apply to the income attributable to debt-financed real estate held by your IRA.