In my option - investing in real estate is an art, an art of knowing values, your seller's dominate selling motive and the ability to build a proposal that will lead to a conclusion of an equity position that will produce cash profits without obligation.I am not selling my skinny contract - but will consult with you for no fee.Charles

If an IRA holds a property and collects rental income from that property, then the property is a passive income producing asset.

I don't understand why the oil producers didn't learn the lesson of overproduction from that collapse.

There is no guaranteed return anywhere, but I have found real estate investing to be pretty forgiving (even if you are uneducated) if you concentrate on buying low and adding value to income producing properties.

Unfortunately, this usually translates into a valuation based upon market price (of comparable properties sold in the area); where a multi-unit would be primarily valued on cash-flow it produces.If you have one or more units which are not habitable, the appraiser may disallow (or severely discount) that space .... in the commercial world, if they are not producing cash-flow, they would have little-to-no value. 

@Sameet KoppikarWith funds in an IRA, you simply want to evaluate the risk/reward of any particular asset as compared to other assets.Notes are relatively low risk, require little interaction on your part, and produce consistent income.Real estate is more work, and has increased risk such as tenant & contractor interactions.What real estate offers that notes do not are the ability to use leverage such as a mortgage and the potential for appreciation in addition to cash flow.There is no one answer as to which asset class is superior.  

Schedule E income (whether the property is held in one's personal name or in a disregarded entity LLC) does not produce earned income to contribute to a solo account.

The unit was incredible and priced right in our opinion but it was in Dec.

And what are some tricks you are using on CL that have produced results? 

Such plans are a way to diversify your retirement savings into real assets that produce consistent return.The key thing to keep in mind is that it is not you investing in real estate and getting to use IRA money to do so.