I am currently a real estate agent (1099-Self Employed) and generate a solid amount of income doing so.

So he called his landlord that night, described the packed open house, his landlord agreed to let him out of the lease right away, and he rented from me the next day after I ran the credit and employment checks.On this occasion, I knew half the group present were tire kickers, had I vetted some of these, I wouldn't have them come.

I’m not a traditional earner, I’m a self-employed musician, and in order for me to get a conventional mortgage, I’d have to pay about 40% in taxes each year.

Also employed as a mortgage lender for the past decade so happy to provide lending insight to the community. 

@Ryan Kawash the difference between a MF within 50 mi radius from where you work and one 1000 mi away is the downpayment, unless you are self employed in which case you can purchase your first MF out of state as owner occupied, an inv MF is 25% down payment and require 6 mo reserves, if you purchase as OO (owner occupied) down payment is 3.5% on FHA and 5% on Freddie, with 2 mo reserves for a duplex and 3 mo reserves for a 3-4 units

Alternatively, If your numbers are accurate, there is definitely enough spread to work with a HML if you are employed, have decent credit and can put some skin in the game (ie 10% of the purchase or so).

If you are ok with waiting until you are 59 1/2 years or older to have full access to the 401k contributions and gains (penalty free) than your path might look different than someone who wants to have a monthly passive cashflow that meets or exceeds their monthly expenses by age 40.Trying to amass a large nest egg in financial products such as a 401k, IRA, etc will require you to save & invest 50% of your income to gain 1 year of paid expenses in retirement, which assumes similar health status and lifestyle choices once you get there.If you are interested in economic independence earlier rather than later, invest only the 5% to get the full employer 401k match and then focus on positive cashflow investments to start replacing your active income (your job).

Hey @Adnan Dizdarevic, most people I know of that employ this strategy either use their own cash or someone else's (ie friend, co-worker, etc. aka private money) for the purchase & rehab since the type of property where you can force significant appreciation is usually distressed (ie hard to get a conventional loan on) or they use a HML for purchase/rehab.  

Question: Is it possible/permissible to open a SEP IRA and make contributions from my real estate LLC while simultaneously maxing out my traditional employer-based 401(k)?

Please note that you are obligated to pay back their 401k (regardless of the performance of your real estate investment).Per the loan offset rules that went into effect with the 2018 Tax and Job Act: if you leave your job and the loan is current at the time you leave your job but then the loan goes into default because you left your job, you will have until your tax return deadline (including any timely filed extension) to make the loan current by depositing the outstanding balance into an IRA (and thereby avoid the taxes and penalties that would otherwise apply).If you are self-employed with no full-time employees & you can rollover the funds, you could set up a Solo 401k, rollover the funds and take a 401k loan from the Solo 401k.