If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing.

@Paul MalandrinosA self-directed IRA would give you the capacity to potentially invest in something where you can have more control over the outcomes.  

We don't have total control of our money if options are limited as to what we can invest in.Yes, you can borrow from your 401k and pay yourself back.

I work in the door to door sales industry selling pest control.

Either way...you have little control over your neighbors other than setting boundaries and using covenants or county code to fix the problem.

That is an awesome story and just goes to show what can happen when you control the tempo.

Your booms & busts will be closely tied to macroeconomic trends that are beyond your control.

If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing.

You never know when they will change their terms/commission rates so getting it under your own control makes a lot of sense. 

On top of this if your half-azz decent you have; tens of thousands in annual legal fee's for annual contract reviews and refinements per what has come to pass in the year, compliance staff to keep on top of all the various compliance changes in every municipality of overlapping control (city, county, state, federal).