@Mark C.You may not do either of the things you propose.You may not transact with your IRA or make contributions to a Roth IRA in excess of the allowable $5500 per year ($6500 if you are age 50 or older).If you have existing IRA funds, those could be setup so as to be able to invest in real estate.

I have a good amount of experience with development locally and if you are buying mostly land then I could see how a title search(along with zoning, utilities, ect.) might be more important with tax deeds than an existing SFR. 

Once you determine where yo want your IRA to be held just tell them you want to do a direct rollover from an existing IRA.

This would allow you to gain control of the property and use the existing equity to cash her out. 

This risk exists with one rental and really even without any rental properties.But I'm not an attorney, so I may be totally wrong on this uneducated opinion.

It depends entirely on your state landlord tenant regulations which you are required to know.

Is it that you have a likelihood of losing your job personally (although I don’t know how this would affect existing real estate investments negatively)?

It exists for a good reason.Finally, if the bank decides to honor the tenant's dispute, we (Cozy) have to attempt to collect lost/disputed payments from a landlord because they are the merchant and the intended recipient of tenant's payments.

What are the rules and regulations in order to start your own GC in Bay area? 

Title insurance is regulated by the state.