They forgot about it and then rushed the job. 

I was ready to move ahead as I was wanting to get away from managing my own rental and turn it over to a professional.

Our agent was rushing us because she said she had an appointment.

New faces were EVERYWHERE and it quickly became a head shaking exercise weekly as we had max bids (and if anything, you'd think an experienced person could go a bit higher than a newbie) since almost certainly we could get it done for less and I was still part time then, even the full timers who could knock em out real quick and efficiently were amazed at how high so many went, there was NO WAY there was profit there.I did the same thing, moved upmarket, but if it weren't for years of experience and years of reading about what those buyers want, not just in near perfect quality, or perfection on the high end, but also the features they want.

"Taking action" and breaking free from "analysis paralysis" cause many new investors to rush into bad, money losing deals.

I'll take that into consideration.Right now we've got a confluence of issues coming to a head that we'll have completed/better handled come next spring/summer (when we get 95% of our back to back bookings).

And an attorney with limited 1031 experience is only going to be reading the text book one step ahead of you.I would recommend a goldilocks approach. 

She went ahead and hired a pest company, signed a contract for the next 18 months, to come and remedy the problem.

You could deploy that money elsewhere and buy a few  smaller (or at least less expensive) homes in a friendlier market and come out way ahead unless you are content with just waiting for the market to appreciate.  

But to me as a businessman that seems like a workaround if I were personally needing to take a large dollar amount right off ahead of doing business.