Yes it is, but you have absolutely got to have trusted "boots on the ground." 

I'm hard pressed to find potential renters who don't have major financial blemishes, let alone criminal records to boot.

If you have 5 flips going on at once, all in hard money and with no rental income coming in, then you're screwed and that's that.If you have a few buy-and-holds with tenants in place that are in HML, it works because when you refinance your new P&I payment is included in DTI (& partially or entirely offset by the rental income, to boot), not the old HML payment.

She has helped me figure out the best types of insurance for rentals and flips alike, including unusual situations and is almost always the least expensive to boot. 

I am boots on the ground here and can help analyze an area for sure.

At the sale of the old property you will start a 1031 exchange but will take boot equal to the amount of your primary residence exclusion. 

If you sell for $160K and buy for $90K there is a potential taxable boot of $70K.  

But they do not have to if they're willing to pay some tax.So option 1 would be to sell the house for $850K and  take $150K in cash boot. 

You are buying less than what you sold so the IRS views that as taking profit (boot). 

It was rented within a week or so..we have boots on the ground to make things happen faster