Do we pay a self employment tax on this?

I have been considering rolling my employer-sponsored 401K into a checkbook/self directed IRA for the purpose of providing hard money loans because I am DISGUSTED by the low ROR I get now.  

I haven't employed this strategy yet and my only credit card is fully paid down.

I'd love to be able to do this full time someday or at least be able to generate 50k per year from this in addition to my current employment income.I've been a landlord for about 6 years now so I'm not necessarily new to the business.

But if you don't pay a salary, then you end up paying this in self-employment tax anyway.

A landlord buys and will at some point sell, they will finance, manage, repair, renovate, they may employ others to find properties, the may end up doing lease options, seller financing, you might sell the note, you might find a heck of a deal and decide not to hold it but flip it....you get the idea.A capital company can do all of these things as the top of a pyramid or on a lateral structure.

Some vinyl planks also have the "click lock" mechanism and they install just like laminate or engineered wood.Even many high end condos in Manhattan are using vinyl planks now, don't let the term vinyl fool you, some brands are 3 times more expensive than hardwood floor, eg: the AMTICO brand cost about $10 per sq footThere are more affordable ones and look and feel just like natural wood floors, check out Allure vinyl planks on home depot.Something to consider....BTW, I love hardwood floor for the kitchen , so good choice :)

There's nothing illegal in any of the methods employed here.

Now if you had a workers comp policy, then you would end up covering any worker you hire; a year end audit would uncover that you had employed workers who did not carry their own coverage and so you would be paying additional premiums for the time (and tasks) that they worked for you!  

I am in the terrible situation of not being able to receive traditional financing because of my short self employment time.