The phrase "buying down in square footage" is a complete mystery to me. 

In a hot market just list and sell it.. no mystery.. 

Another weirdness that you may or may not face...many of the homes were continually having big wet spots appear in/on the slabs, hundreds of people, were calling leak detection services, thinking an underground plumbing leak was causing these mystery wet spots.

That was with a debit/credit card attached to my checking.Last week, I had three mysterious debit transaction attempts hit my card.

I am not saying don't pursue these types of properties, just be prepared and realize you will need to be a much more hands on manager and should probably do some monthly or quarterly inspections to see whats going on inside.D class are paper tigers.. there is just no changing the tenant experience unless your literally there daily watching every thing.. even then your going to run much higher expenses that other rentals.. its just how that tenant class lives.. no mystery to it..  

Then mysteriously the call dropped and then we got a call from the seller's agent sayings this is a direct violation of the agent code. 

One of the great mysteries of real estate.

But again, the experienced national QIs will be able to work with you just fine.What the best ones have figured out over the years (I can't believe the revised statute is now over 20 years old) is that taking the mystery out of the 1031 is the best customer service you can offer. 

I've written an article on our first large deal to dispel some of the mystery.

If you solve that mystery, you will have plenty of deals to look at.