I was told it will not address the main problem which is likely the sub-floor boards have come loose or warped and the joists have become loose and every time someone walks they rub against each other. 

These loans are generally ARM, so you will loose the 30 yr fixed.

I certainly prefer AirBnB over VRBO for the major difference in fees but I feel as if i'm loosing potential bookings due to the poor performance with VRBO.

If you use a local management company, do you loose out on the search engine optimization for listing your property? 

I'm not probably going to buy for $200,000 if you bought for $100,000 and risk loosing $100K if owner redeems....no matter what ARV is.   

Because those will loose control and not learn with mistakes.

If have the rose-colored-glasses on I invite you to go site a day at your local government center, just sit and people watch and listen as the parade of "wtf" comes through, you will quickly loose your faith in humanity I assure. 

When I explain my process to people, you hear an immediate turn in the tone of their voice from 'oh ****, not another application fee' to 'oh, ok, I have nothing to loose because I'm serious about renting this apartment, my landlord isn't a greedy schmuck'.

But with self-directed IRA your investment options are virtually limitless and allow you to invest in the assets that you have much better understanding and much greater control over.The bottom line is this: if you have an IRA with say $100,000 you have an option of keeping that invested in the stock market with the risk of potentially loosing 10, 20 or even 50% of it's value in the next stock market crash or take control over it with a self-directed IRA and invest into tangible assets with lower risk and higher return potential (the option of cashing out your IRA early, paying taxes and penalties would not be prudent for most people).

One thing to note when looking at the individual markets, you can make or loose money in any market.