Simply put, many of these distressed properties were put under duress by the former owners financially, not necessarily the location.

This sounds a lot easier than trying to buy with no money down with private money, especially for owner occupied residency

In your case, transferring the property from a revocable trust to an LLC where you and your wife are the owners should not affect the 1031 exchange, provided the LLC is a disregarded entity for tax purposes . 

They seem to have a great system and I know they spend years before deciding on where to build there projects.

Highway hotel on busy 35 highway. 19 hotel rooms plus owners apartment, large laundry room with commercial washer and dryer, large parking lot, front desk, lobby, roadside sign.

The units are all sold so the owners make up the HOA, but without a board the only person calling meetings right now is the Management company. 

I am responding as a consumer not a STR owner we had one its lasted for us for exactly one tenant then we felt it was too much work for the return  on investment we do much better loaning money and buidling new homes than to worry about people goofing up our homes :)I do have some MTR you know fully furnished homes in Vegas and those are money makers for us top of the line tneants paying double the going rate for rent.

Maintenance at at PM company or one of the big hedge owners like AH4R, leasing at apartment complex will teach you a lot about applications, fraud, leases, collections, evictions. 

I'd recommend staying within 10-15% of the median priced home because that's where the most demand will be not only for renters but owner occupants as well. 

A car forum that I'm a part of, and I know the owner of the forum, told me that the dedicated app required constant work and updates as phones and operating systems changed.