They usually have non-recourse debt requirements so that a mortgage on a 1031 property can be absorbed easily. 

LTV will be a bit lower than you may get in a personally guaranteed loan, so be sure to speak with some lenders like North American Savings Bank or First Western Federal Savings early in your strategy planning.The IRA can then use that new liquidity to make other investments such as purchasing another property, being a hard money lender, etc.The use of debt-financing within an IRA does expose the IRA to taxation on Unrelated Debt-Financed Income (UDFI). 

As an example, if you like short term, high risk, with the chance of higher returns, you may want to invest in a development project or MH bridge debt.

The key is the Debt Coverage Ratio.

And since you have no debt, you really do not need to do this task. 

Any loan on a property that you are personally liable for the debt even if a business owns it, counts. 

It appears your confusion on the 2nd place is because you're factoring in mortgage debt.

We have about $20,000 in student debt from both my wife and I, have $1,500 in savings and have a baby girl due to join our family at the beginning of July (she will be our first and we are so excited!).

With the help of the family member, we got all 15 heirs to sign with us and said due tot he complexity of the deal, we were able to payoff the remaining debts and put some money in each of their pockets.

On the other hand, having rental income without having to worry about another debt is nice, but then the equity is locked up in the house and no tax benefit.