Is there an advantage to starting a self directed IRA with money he has in a past employers IRA or just draw money from that IRA or his regular 401k when he turns 57 1/2, if we wanted to use some of it for a down payment on a vacation rental 

One often overlooked but important item as mentioned is finding out about additional junior liens Before making an offer.

Any unused passive loss gets carried forward.Let me know if you have any additional questions. 

In addition I suspect many of those homes that are huge negative cash flow are being sold to owner occ.. not for rental purposes. ???

What i want to do is either put a bedroom in the attic for one of the units or put an addition on the home for a bedroom.

The point of the law is to improve certain areas of the country by bringing in new structures and upgrades.I will be doing more research and talking to additional real estate specialists at our firm for more guidance.

I have over 10 years experience in rehabs but I'm looking for additional experienced handymen/women so I can turnover the rehabs quicker to get them rented or sold.   

That will serve as another data point in addition to the other ideas I provided.https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/38.672942,-90.300445,38.662421,-90.31583_rect/16_zm/1_fr/

This would give me some freedom in future deals in addition to cash reserves.

The first factor was the announcement of the new Toyota/Mazda plant in Huntsville, AL earlier this year in addition to the already existing plants of Mercedes, Honda and Hyundai.