These private lenders utilize 401Ks, IRAs and other retirement funds to finance other like-minded entrepreneurs.

My husband and I are considering SD retirement accounts but we have some questions.

Bank levy if the funds in their bank are retirement funds or social security etc. 

You will be taking IRA distributions and paying regular income tax on the amount.What you will gain by using an IRA format is keeping the full amount of the current retirement plan available to invest.The alternative would be to take a distribution of the current 401k and pay the taxes on that money, then you would have what is left after taxes to invest.

We are now planning to buy homes in Midwest in  B Class neighborhoods so we can compare and decide what class of neighborhood we are most comfortable with.Since all 4 of us have jobs, investing in Real Estate  is primarily to generate enough passive income to fund our lifestyle and then go full time with investing and eventually retire from our jobs :-)  I hope I can network with other awesome folks on this site and learn a thing or two about investing in Real Estate.

Terms: I'm a big fan of maximizing cash flow ... consider requesting an interest only loan with an early retirement clause.

Are you retired?

So I’m hoping to start buying properties to help with retirement/F I.

If you're using the properties for retirement, you're likely going to be paying lower taxes on the appreciation at that point in time, compared to the taxes on the cashflow today.In the end, there is nothing wrong with a 100% cashflow play, but also nothing wrong with a 100% appreciation play, or something inbetween.

If you’re at least twenty years away from retirement, long-term investments like stocks or investment properties are a great way to slowly build wealth over the years.