Would this be a wise investment to use our IRA funds for a down payment?

You are wise to have purchased in a nice area.

@James Wise - I don't use my full name because I may need to ask a sensitive question about a tenant or my partnership or one of my contractors or a deal.

60k at the age of 25 is a lot of money, and my hope is if I invest it wisely I can make something of myself (be it as a landlord, or another business).

I doubt Rich Wise is here to pull business out and many landlords don't expect to find properties or tenants here.Someone said BP was much like a CE course for investors, if that is the motivation and they are not really seeking a business relationship, the profile may not be important to them.While it seems to be assumed that everyone is here to make business contacts, I doubt that is really the reason for many.

Taxable income-wise, the IO loan generates a lot more taxable income because the entire payment is taxable interest income.

You may not have an eviction or vacancy for a year, beu then you could have 2 in the second year, you never know so "pretending" that all the 50% costs actually occured each month by sending them to the reserve account is the wise thing to do.Your next question may be, what if my reserve account grows to 6 months worth of gross rents, should I continue to keep taking the expenses not spent and depositing into the reserve savings account?

The numbers are very important because it takes a lead that would other wise be lost because the MAO is far less than what the seller could finacially afford to bear.

On more marginal deals, obviously it would be wise, appropriate, and necessary to stay within the guideline I suggested.As for which is better, double close or assign (or in the cases where assigning is not possible, using another startegy such as a land trust or entity), there are positives and negatives on each side and each investor must weigh them.For double closings, you have more fees (escrow, title, transfer taxes (where applicable), recording fees, etc, plus you must come to the table with your own cash to close or use transactional funding which then costs you even more.

Rich and Bryan - thank you both for your prompt, honest and wise feedback.