We traded a great deal of in-the-moment comforts to achieve these things, but it hasn't been all dull.Along the way, my wife and I have taken multiple one-week vacations: NYC; drove the 101 from Portland, OR to San Diego, CA; drove from Portland, ME back home to Omaha, NE; and hit Chicago for food and Cubs games several times.If you want to escape your financial burden and achieve financial freedom, you can, but it requires difficult choices and hard commitments.

Not hard whatsoever.

You are trading in monthly cash flows for much greater stability, especially when you are talking about markets like Cambridge and Boston (and especially since you are buying more or less retail product 100% leveraged, its going to be tough to have amazing cash flows). 

Also, flipping transactions if executed regularly are considered a trade or business and subject an IRA to tax on Unrelated Business Taxable Income.The purpose of a self-directed IRA is diversification. 

I assume you do not have access to the same licensed trades that were previously on the building permit (i.e.

Southern Maine is a crazy multi-family market right now and I think it will continue up as YUPPIES in the northeast trade big city congestion for coastal Maine living.

I then started foreign exchange trading which is still in progress.

Building relationships with tradesmen takes time so you are either going to overpay for a general contractor with a strong reputation or risk getting burned subbing out the individual trades to people you don't have a history with.The other big question is what are your income requirements? 

I don't do trades like that but if you give me more specifics on exactly the areas you want to learn I can definitely point you in the right direction or send over any resources I have. 

I am definitely not going to be paying over market value, but at the same time I understand the trade off of support, management, etc. that I am receiving from the provider.