Let's see: You sell one property, and to avoid paying cap gains tax, you then reinvest those profits within 45 days into a larger "like kind" property.

In general, any time you have profit or depreciation recapture that would cause a tax. 

If you do buy a pre foreclosure and follow all the rules and sell within 36 months any profit 80% has to go back to the original owner  who was in foreclosure.Since I made living doing foreclosure rescue prior to this . the new laws removed that activity from my business..

Having fewer but better properties will be more profitable in the long run.

Likely not allowed in the lease and if the landlord were to allow it they will partner with you and take a good chunk of the profits.

When you add rehab costs and effort, holding costs, and selling cost there is not much profit. 

If you already have that where you live, why put those profits at risk?

You may be profitable, but I'd prefer to avoid the possibility of having to do unnecessary repairs or not holding my tenants accountable for damage when I know their actions might have caused any unforeseen damage. 

Sell,  pay the taxes, and give them their $1,000 plus half the after tax profits?

So from experience I can't say it has been beneficial or not to our profit.