I have a friend who owns 10 or so units near here so we are thinking of spliting some of the cost and combining all the units together.

I am constantly monitoring the occupancy and it looks like winter break is going to be pretty high all across the Mexican Riviera Maya. 

And being near garden of the gods that I a great spot for an STR.

However, you are correct, their CoC returns will never make you rich in the near future.

I haven't done a 1031 exchange, but may in the near future and the small amount of research I have done on it seems to indicate that some qualified intermediaries only do the intermediary task (hold your money while you close on the new deal) and some try to do other tasks as well, like facilitate you finding the next deal, etc. 

Thanks for the link - looks like a great property and I'm a sucker for properties located near baseball and football stadiums ;-)That being said, I assume you've only looked at doing this as a long-term rental?

It is near impossible to say he's good to go or not.

We have owned 14 SF rentals and 4 apartment complexes totaling near 1,000 units, and over 17 year period we have been sued exactly once.We had a 350lb resident that missed the bottom step of the staircase, fell and hurt himself. 

Is their current portfolio distressed, or was the majority of their current portfolio purchased at the peak of the market, indicating that they might be in distress in the near future. 

If you SLOWLY add variables after you have solved the same problem a couple times it gets easier with less risk.I sadly had a very hard time with FOCUS and switched things up on nearly every project, creating new challenges.