Ideally, you could also be an investor and buy something in a cheaper market and have it managed by a PM. 

AND, you don’t save a pro-rated portion of the taxes, any amount of your exchange over the ADU value would be 100% taxable. 

In other words, you will pay less in taxes by reducing your taxable income.

The "boot" (cash or non-like-kind property you received, which is $190k in this case) is taxable.

This particular area in our market doesn't have cheaper 3 bedroom 2 bathroom homes so there's a nice sweet spot in the market.

All our prices were UNDER what the insurance company paid, and they still weren't low enough.So, owner went and hired someone to do the work cheaper than us. 3 months later they called us to take over and the job was a mess.

The prices in AB will increase but will almost always be cheaper than Vancouver and Toronto. 

Keep in mind usually smaller less experienced organizations will give you a cheaper option.

Is a concrete retention wall better, cheaper than a wooden one?

When purchasing your mother-in-law's house through seller financing, since the property qualifies as her primary residence, she should be able to exclude up to $250,000 of gains ($500,000 if married) from taxable income, so capital gains taxes are unlikely to be an issue given the sale price is below the tax basis.2.