You will find that either your anticipated tax situation will likely not require as much help from a depreciation write off, or that your exposure now is not so bad that you can absorb the 140K or so in tax from a sale foregoing the 1031.If paying the tax now is too painful and you anticipate needing more depreciation write off in the future then 1031 and use the gain to purchase more property than you sold and take both the remaining 12 or so years on your current property basis and the additional depreciation you gain through purchasing up.

You're taking on more risk with lower income properties so your anticipated return should be a higher percentage than if you were holding a home in SW Cape Coral.That said, are you able to be 100% business?

Due to the rent of $5700 you are expecting $1710 in monthly expenses, but an exact carbon copy house in the Midwest will only anticipate $500 for monthly expenses.

Lastly having the borrower file bankruptcy can put a dent in the anticipated schedule if foreclosure is imminent but can be worked-around. 

thanks a lot for the warm welcome. i anticipate a good and wonderful time together. surely i will have a lot of questions to ask, but for now gracias !

But anticipating the 26 hrs on planes I booked it all 1st class. 

Most banks either sell the loans to Fannie/Freedie, or adhere to their guidelines, which for 2-4 unit buildings, its max 75%LTV for purchase, max 70%LTV for cash out.So with your anticipated value of $275k, your max loan would be $206k (purchase) or $192.5k (cash out).  

Anticipating calls from these leads and preparing an offer that may or may not be accepted.

Be very conservative on your ARV (final sale could be 10%-15% below your asking), don't forget to factor in construction overruns and discovery work (typically budget a 15% cushion), don't forget to budget acquisition costs (6%-10% of purchase price), selling costs (6%-10% of ARV) and holding costs (be conservative it will almost always take longer than you think or than your contractor tells you and may take more time than anticipated to sell and for buyers to secure funding).  

In sunny CA you may only need the pylon to be deep enough to support any anticipated static loads.So rather than a contractor you may need an Engineer.