@Steve Vaughan  I think the reason they do is for some reason they believe what they hear that the way to buy rental real estate when you have no money.. is to wholesale first get some money then buy rentals.when in fact wholesaling or buying and selling deals quickly in any volume takes a lot of skill.. significant marketing capital.. and most of the time they are breaking the real estate laws.And you have all sorts of HOW TO trainers selling their boot camps and of course they lead with you too can get rich with NON of your own money..theoreticaly that's true.. but not really reality in the real world..not to mention some areas simply do not have enough distressed real estate to make it viable at all.other areas like urban cores and cities that have seen hard times much easier to at least snag low value assets no one wants.. much of this is done is rough areas.Granted there are always hoarder houses and other fixer types in the nicer areas but its uber competitive for them.. and generally there is not enough profit in them to feed all the mouths.the wholesaler the buyer the buyer having to use hard money the contractor sales cost etc.. that in my mind is why you see so many post about HEY wholesalers don't know what they are doing..

You may run into minimum value/loan amount issues but with your liquid assets you have lots of non-bank financing options.

I live in Bend and have 2 investment properties in the Bend area and would like to obtain more because of the high demand for both STR and LTR and a good resale market as well.

Bryan,Here are the 3 main options to consider:1) Custodial self-directed IRA, lower upfront cost but watch out for transaction and asset based fees, have to go through custodian for every transaction, might be inconvenient for certain investments. 2) Checkbook IRA (aka Checkbook IRA), eliminate transaction fees, higher upfront cost because of special purpose LLC, but long term will provide savings and most importantly a convenience of having checkbook control over your retirement assets. 3) Truly self-directed Solo 401k, requires self-employment activity or small business, the best option if you qualify.

Also if you obtained a mortgage some of your closing costs may be amortizable.  

I don't suggest putting all of your cash in one project, rather find some lenders (feel free to PM me, I can help with this as well) that can do loans based off of the property itself and not your personal income/assets.

The strategy sounds fine but will be a slower process (time) as well as more expense with your cash being tied up inside each property.I'm a fan of the  BRRRR method, where you use debt to create assets and then have the renter pay your debt off over time.

Peak can generally tell what the area is like and won't lend if they think it's not a solid asset.

Theoretically couldn’t a tenant use the bank account number you gave them to deposit rent and then obtain the routing number for that bank and make their car payment with a check by phone using your account?

I know it’s not going to be easy but I’m willing do to the work and obtaining as much knowledge as possible.