The tenant fails to pay their last month's rent and leaves the place needing new flooring and paint.

Insurance would cover it, I would pay the deductible, and no assets would be lost.If you are in an area like San Diego where people are more likely to sue, a judge is more likely to find you guilty, and the payout is expected to be higher, you may consider an umbrella insurance policy.

Doing this will indefinitely defer paying tax on profit or depreciation recapture. 

You have to put more money down and pay a higher interest rate and is limited to only 2% IPC.

I guess the different strategies FOR ME would be.A- Find a lender that would actually do the refi and pay the tax.B- Sell a property and use those funds to lend as they would go back to the IRA. 

Now, you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them.

That being said, your typical cost of capital is as follows:EquityAgency debtBalance Sheet local lenderDebt FundPrivate DebtPref EquityHard Money DebtBookie/Loan SharkOther things that will impact capital sources: are you wanting to finance the improvements, or will you pay for those from equity/cash flow?  

The training is pretty thorough focused on lending hard/private money to other fix and flip investors, or for my own deals for which I could pay myself as the loan broker.

I'd start the refinance process right away, or just pay it off, or sell. 

We explained to him we would pay for probate and pay to fix up the house to get it rented.The lease is for 5 years but dissolves once we close.