The consolidated management costs and the scalability are far better than purchasing single family homes when your end goal is cash flow (think of all the Six Sigma wastes you eliminate by consolidating everything for 30 units worth of income into a single transaction). 

Very 50,000 foot perspective - yet just to mention, the growth in the MJ market is starting to consolidate.  

I am thinking maybe I should hold off and buy fewer more expensive properties to ensure I don't have ten or so on the market all at the same time, when I will hopefully be trying to execute the final part of my plan and consolidating all of my capital for one property.  

The ability to diversify into greater numbers or more advantageous geographical locations and then consolidate as your investing cycle matures into larger less hands on projects is a key component to using 1031s successfully Absolutely as said above the 1031 has to leave you in a better position.  

You can make money in four ways:Cash FlowAppreciation (gambling)AmortizationTax ShelterIf you are holding this for the long term and it's in a good consolidated area, you  should be ok.

If you're just debt some are real nice with a single consolidated 1099 you need to deal with ;).Good luck!

(iii) High complexity projects - purchased pretty much a city block and consolidating the lots into multiple phases of apartment buildings. 

Curious to see what other BP folks suggest.When your ready I would love to see a consolidated list that makes up this strategy, it'll be interesting to see what the wider community adds to this.

The goal at that time will be to consolidate my holdings and syndicate with family/friends into a 100+ unit property.

For example, instead of acquiring 50 $100,000 SFRs, why not attempt to consolidate all your holdings into one $5M apartment building?