Continue your education by reading the blogs and look into some of the books that are recommended in the podcast.

hi josh. i have thought at times about doing the vacation rental house thing myself. maybe some day i will do it. first and foremost, education is a great thing, but you can spend too much time on education and never spend anytime in the real world education center. my advice???

You need to spend a little for a proper education or to jumpstart that part of your education, for sure it will be more than $1,000 if you make a mistake on your offer.

I could not find much in the way of comps, so I made an educated guess.  

I believe you are referring to Self Directed IRA's (SD IRA or SDIRA)....try to do a search on them on here or online and educate yourself on them.Other reading....http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/63454-list-of-self-directed-ira-companieshttp://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/64530-best-self-directed-ira-trust-companies-http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/51/topics/58063-who-is-your-self-directed-ira-custodian-of-choice-why-http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/3258-self-directed-retirement-plans

Education is key.http://get.biggerpockets.com/nomoneydown/http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investingA lot of people also talk about finding your why.

She is not motivated and you may not have the skills to educate her otherwise, even if you do, sounds like she's impressed with what she has, not a good situation to spend time with.

I have much lower insurance rates so I'm just looking to educate myself, fairly new to the area.

This slight loss in rental income is a small price to pay for the education you received in dealing with difficult people. 

A Residential Mortgage Loan Originator will not only provide the seller/lender with information so that he can make and educated lending decision but it will provide the buyer/borrower with a transparent transaction limiting future issues.