I have been a lurker on this site for many months but decided its time to introduce myself to the community and get more involved. 

Here is a link to the IRS for reference: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-particip...All transactions involving your IRA must be 'arms length', you personally or any business that you own must stay away from such transaction as far as possible.

And I'll bet with a little review class you could pass easily. 

As anyone who has been in the military can tell you, you ALWAYS have someone telling you what to do, when to do it, how, where, and even with who you have to involve.

Hire college students to do the demo and I'll bet some of them can do most of the repairs.

The identification must be in writing, signed by you and delivered to a person involved in the exchange like the seller of the replacement property or the qualified intermediary.

The title agent from Alabama said this is not needed, but the lender is saying it's needed to meet investor requirements, whatever that means.My wife fully supports my real estate endeavors, but does NOT want to be involved. 

@Sean Cole  its regional for sure.. the ones I had in MS and AL  feed us the deals.. but lots of deals there ... its funny as we talk about this.. some parts of the country there are still plenty of deals others its very tight the deal ship has sailed and its basically pre 07 market.. one size does not fit all.in Oregon we have little to no OREO inventory anymore all those agents that specialized in it are out of business and back to doing regular real estate.. the foreclosures at court house that were 20 to 50 a week are down to 3 or 4.. with MASSIVE competition.. it all cycles that's for sure.. but I bet you can still roll into certain big cities and buy hang over inventory..

You definitely want to get either a Title company or a lawyer involved who can run a title report to make sure what you are buying and from whom and how much is owed and to whom is as represented.

Rates are on the rise unfortunately and I am betting the 4.5% you were looking at two months ago is now 5.5% on a 30 year.