I wasn’t handed a blueprint for success—I had to build my own, piece by piece.Right now, I’m navigating real estate while under pressure and recent setbacks .

People claim that 1031 investors over pay all the time just to avoid taxes.  

There are plenty apartment buildings, the issue is finding them at the right price point - as in any hot market. 

I've worked with some Canadians buying  here in Ohio.Indeed, rather than selling your stocks to fund investments (and lose out on any potential price appreciation and dividend payments, as well as incurring capital gains taxes), a nice alternative is to borrow against some percentage of the holdings.You would start with the brokerage where you hold the stocks and see what their loan program looks like for the account you hold. 

Glad you are setting aside money, but if the HVAC is 20 years old, or the septic system has never been pumped, or the roof is 25 years old, etc; you will get hit with a cost before your build up enough set aside.How stable is the other tenant? 

My main goal is to build good fundamental knowledge so any and all help is appreciated!

I use it for the same reason to build a REI network because I am looking to be an active wholesaler soon.

I've partnered with several contractors over the years (before I got my own license) and it is very normal for the contractor to be paid for materials and labor, even if they are doing the build "at cost"It's complicated and as other have stated, you've gotten yourself in too big of a mess to be sorted out by some people on an internet forum. 

So the question becomes based on their individual and personal tax situation what is the estimated tax burden they'd save? 

I think a large part of building wealth is being optimistic and paranoid/scared to death at the same time.