There is definitely an art to finding comps that the automated valuation systems fail at.Need to look at age, lot size, etc as well as other contributing factors like unique location issues like busy road, etc....not just simply home square footage.You also need to dig in to the details and filter the comp data for condition to essentially have 2 sets of comps.

A big thank you to contributing members for all of the responses and support thus far. 

Generally deciding what is fair takes into account how much; knowledge, time, effort, money and risk each member contributes to the project.

I generally keep double wides as rentals.Thank both you for your contribution.

I am a fast learner and I am sure I can contribute and help out here soon. 

I'm not a fortune teller so I will just keep contributing and hoping that my investor is still in business for a reason.

Our overarching REI goal is to acquire 7-10 properties in total and pay them all off in 10-15 years using the rental debt snowball method (with plentiful contributions from our W-2 jobs).

It's a scary thought, however.I understand how SD-IRAs work, so I'd like to know how you took the leap to moving your retirement funds from a 'secure' position in a standard investment scenario to self-directing your retirement funds into real estate.My sense: this is a good way to have skin in the game and create a track record, particularly when I start to invite others to invest with me, while increasing my return.Thank you for contributing your thoughts and ideas, I look forward to hearing about your experience self-directing your personal IRA funds.Cheers-Jarid

@Simon ChanYou can look into doing a "Roth Conversion"This will convert the amount from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.Whether the conversion is taxable or not depends on how much basis you have in the traditional IRA.You have basis for traditional IRA contributions if you were not eligible to take a deduction in year of contribution.Talking to an accountant can walk you through the process and tell you how much of it will be taxable and tax impact.

They compare contribution amounts, which are not equivalent from the investors standpoint because one is pre-tax and the other is not.