I'm so excited to finally start to understand the power of Self Directed IRA's.  As a realtor and real estate investor this makes so much sense.  For the aggressive investor they can increase the value of their IRA by using leverage to buy cash flowing investment properties with non recourse loans.  Most require at least 30% down. If your investor wants less rish they can always put more money down, increase the cashflow, lower the taxes and avoid some of the risks involved with leverage.  One thing I'm looking into is putting together small groups of investors in tenants in common to cash out investment properties to eliminate all the risk and avoid all the taxes.  I also love the idea of using the self directed IRA's to loan money in first deed of trust positions or even as unsecured loans.  Let me know what your doing with self directed IRA's, what has been your success and what to avoid.  I'm new in this arena but the possibilities seem endless.