We should have held most of the cash, I know, but we were not thinking long term business at the time. 

A "portfolio loan" is a loan which is serviced by the lender who issued the funds (i.e. held in their portfolio), rather than being packaged together with other loans and sold on the secondary market.

My question would be WHY you would want to deal with someone that you know is operating in a grey area, and cannot be held accountable??  

., and am all ready to go but have held off on pulling the trigger because im not quite sure how to handle a couple of complicated situations:1.  

IRS rules require use non-recourse financing for any investments held in an IRA.  

I don't like having that much cash held up in the duplex and could try to refinance it to get it back out once the rehab was done but haven't done that before so I didn't want to count on having that happen.  

You could also be held liable if someone missed work, doctors appointments...you don't want to go there normally. 

The property owners held the properties in their names, we rehabbed and made the house payments during our rehab time.  

It might not make sense to do a 1031 exchange.In PA, state income tax will be due on the gain even if you do a 1031 exchange.You will have to pay a qualified intermediary (QI) to handle the 1031 exchange; that might run in the ballpark of $1000 or so.If you already held for a year, you are now into long term capital gains tax rate rather than short term.

If the property is held in a living trust, your mother may be the trustee.