Not to mention anything else you are brrrring, flipping, or doing the traditional buy and hold.  

Best financing is the traditional 30 year residential mortgage.

I saved up money for a 20% down payment and took out a traditional loan on the property.

What makes a self-directed IRA custodian different is that they are not purely connected to the public exchanges and limited to investing in stocks, bonds and funds, but rather have the staff training and paperwork to document the IRA's investment in the more individualized transactions that occur when investing in real estate, notes and other non-traditional assets.

Our overall goal, like many on BP, is to achieve financial freedom and retire (i.e. not working traditional 9-5 jobs) in the next 5-10 years.We both want to get into real estate investing and after much thinking, debating, and late night discussions there are a few decisions we could use some advice on.1.

Negative #1, you need two years of 1099 income proof to qualify for a traditional type home mortgage. 

RIETs don't traditionally take commodity risk.

Subsequently have purchased >18 more doors through traditional means.

Good economic prospects, decent rent to buy ratio (notwithstanding the current housing bubble that has put a bit of a squeeze on traditional leases), and most importantly, properties available for low, low prices.

Traditional financing, hard money?