Account ClosedI am a Realtor in Greenville, SC. 

I honestly believe you'll end up with a ton of work just to get negative equity vs. your investment and a breakeven cashflow at best as you're not accounting for a number of major expenses in your pro forma.

If you are considering a larger multi-family, there would be additional things to check like employee records, reserve funds, review of bank accounts, environmental assessment, and more.

Furthermore, there are several other fees/expenses that need to be accounted for besides repairs.

Account Closed lol yeah sure.

How much of a margin should I build in to account for bad things happening? 

What are some good rules of thumb to use when accounting for vacancies?

I used to work as a HUD Account Manager (I managed REO foreclosures for many big banks as well) and there was always a process.

Too me that sounds a bit weird seeing as the whole point of investing in RE is to make significant more than the CPI, and he will get plenty with the cashflow, amortization, and capital gains on top of his initial investment.My partner has about 1/4 of his capital tied up in a savings account.

@Drew PoniewazAs George indicated, location is generally not the primary deciding factor when selecting a provider for a self-directed IRA or 401k based retirement plan.This is a very specialty field, with a handful of providers.There are about 3-4 dozen companies that act as custodians, basically processing the investments you direct them to execute on behalf of your IRA account.