This type of income could be considered self-employment income, in which case moving it to an LLC which pays you a reasonable salary could reduce payroll/SE tax.

My thought would be to knock the barn down and put in self storage. 

There are a few self-contained guides that you can access here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/guidesI really like the alerts feature that can quickly guide you to current topics that might interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts

I recently sold a rental property and would like to try and defer all or part of the proceeds. i dont want to exchange into another self managed property...would like to take a break from landlordingthank you

BP Crew,I am currently interested in creating my self directed IRA, but have read some posts where people have had interactions with questionable, and outright unscrupulous SDIRA entities. 

I also love to read - mainly self improvement/mindset type books so if you have any recommendations let me know!

We brought on two investors who used self-directed IRA's to invest and due to the timing of the appraisal coming back and getting all of the legal paperwork done, we actually didn't get all of the money wired until the day AFTER closing.

I want to park cash in a liquid REIT such as the TIAA-CREF REAL ESTATE SEC PREMIER.
Can my LLC open an online trading account?
Thanks in advance for the assistance.
Ed

Since you are in your 40s you probably know a lot of people who had a career, then switched jobs, which means they probably have an IRA they can convert into a self directed IRA which they could loan to you and make money tax deferred.

My dream is to do flips (I am self-employed interior designer so I have a fair amount of knowledge/experience/ideas/hook ups when it comes to the renovation world) but still not sure how to bridge the gap between where I am and where I want to go considering how insanely expensive real estate is here and also how relatively inexperienced I am with regards to the whole process (aside from interior design and some construction knowledge).