While I understand that hacking (personal use mixed into investment) can add opportunity / 'sweat equity' to your investment, if the investment opportunity alone makes investing sense (the return you get is greater than the opportunity cost, (i.e., the returns you could have gotten from investing that same money in some/all other extant investment opportunities) and is above your minimum investment return threshold, INVEST!  

I am now at the point where I rather buy a condo or small house with potential for sweat equity to live in, while I invest in OOS TK properties like memphis invest. 

You should be reimbursed by your building insurance so don't sweat it, this isn't a time to be pinching pennies.

Just some sweat equity really.

I wouldn't sweat being under market rent a little bit on a good deal.

They brought a majority of the funds to the deal and we brought sweat equity for renovation, on going management and maintenance.

Real estate is already relatively tax advantaged anyways.The prohibited transaction rules can be quite onerous - even some sweat equity on the property can trigger problems for you. 

Austin or DFW are the common favorites, but any of the Four Metros will work fine if you don't want to sweat going out into the smaller towns. 

make sure to post your Bathroom sweat equity project before and after picture in the success forum for everyone to check it out!

There are several things you need to be aware of such as UBIT, partnering with your IRA, rollovers, non recourse lending, possibly using a 401k instead of SDIRA , sweat equity, etc. hopefully they can help you do it the best way to meet your goals.