I think everyone misunderstood what I mean by self-directed IRA = not I pick investments in a rollover 401K or an IRA, but an SDIRA is administered by a 3rd party custodian and one can invest in anything including solely purchasing real estate property for investment purposes. In my case I want to participate in a private placement offering. So the firms I'm looking at are: UDirect, Entrust, Equity Trust (they have tiered fees that get higher the more you invest, I think b/c they are providing private offerings which I don't need), Rocket Dollar, IRA Financial.
Fidelity and Vanguard don't do this, I do have an account with Fidelity and have rolled over prior employer 401k's into this account. But I cannot invest these monies in a private offering. I need to transfer to a custodian and then direct investments.