@John Matthews I like the sound of your $115k triplex and you would be hard pressed to find something even close to that around the Seattle area.

Thank you John.

@John Thedford is exactly correct. 

I thought about a winter "artists retreat" at a reduced rate and maybe deer hunters, never pursued it past that.

John,I get emails weekly from services wanting to also take over the tasks of getting my short sales to approval.

I'm actually out in Saint John for work, not too far from you.The market in general I think is good considering over a quarter million people immigrate in to Toronto on a yearly basis.  

@John Myers I believe the question was geared towards using an existing IRA to produce income for today's use without incurring taxes or penalties...you can't do that with a SDRA as all of the profits have to go back into the SDRA. 

@John Carr I ended up using my bank, however, I ended up putting 10 % down payment instead of 5 % because it was a condo.

@John Matthews Philly looks pretty scary to me.

@BillG and @John Jackson.