At some point in the near future I will sell everything (small to medium properties in the $300K - $7M) and do a 1031 exchange (so I don't get slammed with taxes) into a handful of large income producing properties...hire a management company and call it a day.

This is because lenders are primarily concerned with the income-producing potential of the property when determining its value.In regards to your second question, it is possible to buy a property from yourself or transfer ownership between entities.

Buying in a hot STR market may not produce the greatest CoCROI because hot markets are typically more expensive to get into.

I bought  a new construction with the Renttoretirement (RTR) platform in Nov-Dec'23 and regretting it big time!

I think ok purchases will not produce great returns.  

It's really not a hedge against the dollar collapsing, it's just your assets working for you to produce more $. 

If I was confident one way or another I would place my investing "bets" accordingly, but for now I make decisions based on where the data and trends suggest the most reliable chance of producing a return. 

I am not good at design at all, but I do have some clients who basically copied top producing properties design and did a great job themselves. 

Comb your financials and produce your best number.

This amounts to lost opportunity because if you had purchased RE, at the closing it can start producing return.5) ADUs detract from the existing structure whether this is privacy, a garage, or just yard space. 6) this is related to the value added by the ADU, but there are many more buyers looking to purchase homes for their family than there are RE investors looking to purchase small unit count properties.