That’s not much of an upside unless you have few closing costs and flip fast, before you sink money into paying mortgage each month. 

That's not easy to reproduce in today's market, so Kudos to you both!

Of course, nobody wants to be the test case, but I've never heard of IRS treating money from a loan as income, ever.I think you would be better off with a long closing date on the purchase and sell your exchange property fast so you can do a conventional 1031, receive conventional financing with one set of start up fees/costs, etc.

X a month sounds a lot better and is actually doable for a lot of people vs a big pile of cash today if you need a full cash sale. 

Creative financing is imperative in todays market.

It's easy to get bogged down by too much software in today's world. 

Ask yourself if your actions today are getting you any closer to short/mid/long-term goals.

Definitely agree with Kevin, a lot of insight in this one post, especially on staying practical and working fast to put a deal together. 

Today, deals are very tight, not much meat one the bone.

This is also partly why it has gone from 9 cents in 2009 to 9k today.