I did not consider the 7 units to be habitable and the duplex I bought with it was barely habitable.

By bringing your personal savings you are enabling your IRA engage in a transaction it otherwise not able to participate, this would be considered "prohibited" by the IRS.If you wish to stay out of trouble follow advice of @Daniel Dietz: make sure each transaction your IRA is involved with is "arms length" (no "disqualified person" is involved in the transaction). 

I guess our general question is: does joint ownership with eligible VA Loan participants, good credit, low debt give us more purchasing power?

Purchase price: $320,000 Cash invested: $64,000 Bare land we plan to build SFR and ADU's What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Purchase price: $320,000 Cash invested: $64,000 Bare land we plan to build SFR and ADU's

Private lenders who you have not worked with will likely want you to participate in the funding unless it’s family or friends.  

The best I can do is barely breakeven (CoC ROI is slightly negative). 

So even though the other person isn't on title, they need to sign documents and participate in a sale. 

I just dont like when people do the bare minimum because I try to do a good job and go the extra mile 

@Mario Morales, almost every value-add deal is going to be barely breaking even the first several months, and sometimes depending on the scale of the project, first year or two.