I also know they are in their 50's, have their own electrician business, and they bought the house for 25k 3 yrs ago.

I you need the money to make the next deal "go", 1031's have their place.  

I travel for work and have been able to maintain some type of loyalty with the airlines which can help get some time shaved off should I need to check bags.

My buying criteria right now is ARV(shave off 15%)*.7-repairs = purchase price 

It certainly isn't peaches, cream, and Glamor in WacoThe learning curve can be long and expensive.

I reckon one advantage of having a solid lease is not letting the tenant(s) have randoms they don't know move in at a later date. 

I interchange the croissant with hand crafted ice cream from a world renown and award winning ice cream shop that is 443 ft from the apartment. 

I live in Links Point (LN) Suggestions: clean and scrub everything, paint neutral cream color, donate to the Goodwill truck down by the Ziggurat building they are open daylight hours or have AMVets pick up curbside.

What may look catastrophic on paper may in fact be manageable and what may look like a cream puff on paper could in fact be money pit that makes Butte's famous Pit seem shallow. 

That will turn off some people who realize you don't know what you are doing, but still want the cream of the crop to come walking in.