So the more money and the faster it comes, the better!

:o)Yes, SFs will get you there but there are many others that can get you there; faster, slower, riskier, safer, hard work, or on a beach. 

Hard to beat the slow, inevitable march of financial success in by and hold real estate.Things get even better and get better faster with faster principal payoffs or finding better cashflow.

As @Brie Schmidt said if there are issues that come up and the deal can't close a broker can still get the deal do e faster than starting over with a new lender. 

Everyone's goals are different, and if all you want is to grow slowly and buy a property every year or two (not sure what other sources of income you have) then 20-30% down is fine, but if you want to grow any faster than that, you'll need to either get more income, or find a way to put less down into the deal - perhaps by buying a property at a discount, thereby with that 20% equity built in and then doing a cashout refinance....Anyway, back to your question, what do you mean by "good" properties in philly?

The work will still go into the units as I feel they will rent much faster and 3k goes quick when you think about it.

Would it also be dangerous to go into a property with limited bank roll in case something seriously went wrong that I would have to fix. 

This could grow the money faster than 6% and the fund management company is on board with us doing it either way although they don't provide the self directed IRA account and we'd have to go elsewhere to get.

I know scaling is likely faster and easier with RE.

Plus mine is faster to modify.ROI is:Net Income / Total InvestmentRE Example:4/2 SFH purchased for 55k5k more in closing costsTotal Investment 60kNet Income 2014: $5000ROI = 5000/60000 = ~8.33%