Most of my loans starting out were with a local credit union, they new me and my brother when we walked in the door which felt good  We did get some special treatment (loan modifications instead of new loans being issued) but that all changed when the individuals we were working with went to corporate and we had to start over...  5 years ago I would have told you that credit unions are more flexible however I have moved more towards business loans (instead of home equity) and many credit unions do not have a business division and others are new to it and are still learning the ropes. 

Perhaps having a pre-planned iteration of treatments on the account to some degree setup.  

The proper tax treatment is to add your net rental income to your other ordinary income, then compute your taxes.  

@Matt Smith, if you're buying the fixer uppers primarily to resell then they would not qualify for 1031 treatment.  

Keep a copy of the guarantee of the 2 year policy, the original treatment date and the 2nd company's inspection report showing termite damage in the event you have to file for a civil court case.

So in that $257K cost basis there could be $25K-$35K+ in tangible personal property depreciated over 5 years with 200% declining balance accelerated treatment and a mid quarter convention. so depending on the placed in service date either second quarter or third quarter for either 25% depreciation or 15% depreciation in 2016. 

Could @Lindsey Leemis arrange for her friends to "gift" her money under the annual limits and forego any treatment of the property as investment?  

Once you've owned it a year you'll be eligible for long-term capital gains treatment and you can reassess then based on market conditions and your other projects.

Partial or Split 1031/121On this I am less familiar, but I am quite sure one can perform a partial 1031, giving the 1031 treatment to the investment portion of your equity, and I am pretty sure this goes for the 121 home sale exclusion as well, so that *I think* an option might theoretically be to do a 1031 with the investment side of the duplex and a 121 with the side you're living in.

Having a single form is a big plus but curious if the tax treatment changes.Yeah the acquisition cost is huge, I remember them doing $150-$200 referral fees to help drive growth.Definitely agree with you, aggregators will have access to tremendous amount of data, be interesting how they might use it or share it (if allowed).