Flipping and wholesaling are businesses, and if conducted regularly in an IRA will generate taxable UBTI (Unrelated Business Taxable Income).Buy and hold rentals work well. 

Its all about feeling comfortable with who you are about to conduct business with, if youd like my 2cents feel free to PM me

Read these @Stanford Neal Mead, you should have 98% of your question answered, including a checklist to clarify with the partner prior to entering partnership:How to Effectively Conduct Joint Venture Agreements as a Real Estate Investor596231-how-do-i-properly-construct-a-purchase-with-a-partnership591376-create-an-llc-for-first-partnership-best-way-to-do-so526244-taking-on-partner-s-and-limiting-our-liabilites

Also, understanding how the world of agents works - meaning how to interact with them, how the business is conducted/handled, all the rules/regulations, etc.

What sort of research/due diligence do you guys conduct on [b]local market conditions to get comfortable investing in areas that are far from where you reside?

With that being said I have conducted some more research and found a complex that appears to have poor management in place.

Also make sure you conduct a thorough fiscal eval on the property.

Second why wouldn't you be using structure to conduct business?

Most of these guys were pretty social and seemed to know each other as well as the people conducting the auction.

Do they need to work as a real estate agent under a real estate broker at that point to conduct those commercial types of financial transactions?