There is a lot of grey area on this site, as there is on most sites, and in the interest of wanting to be fair to posters and not be ridiculously heavy handed, most mods will give posters the benefit of the doubt on the front end, maybe with removing a post and a warning or something similar.

So the question is - why would someone entering a deal/assignment need a gator to cover EMD?

Hey Dave, since I have mortgages on these properties, would it make sense to bring cash to the exchange to cover the mortgage amount (or pay off the mortgage before doing the 1031) and improve the cash flow for the newly acquired property?

and how do i cover this up?

There's nothing left to cover expenses so you better have deep pockets to cover maintenance, admin, turns, etc.If you think you can quickly improve rents to a point that covers your expenses and pads your pocket a bit, then maybe, IF it hits your return threshold.If you're buying cash, then the mortgage is not a factor. 

The idea of house hacking a multi-family property is a great way to cover living expenses while building equity.

Their concept is not new and has been around for ages with people renting rooms in college towns and more expensive markets (NYC, LA) however this is a centralized more hands off management approach to self managing by letting them do all the heavy lifting for you which allows you to scale in less time so yes the concept definitely works and even better with their technology behind it.

We recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Tenant damage, beyond normal wear and tear, tends to be covered by the deposit.

They have stepped in to cover repairs for me, pressured mngt to do the same, introduced me to other PM teams that would perform better, shared multiple resources with me to assist with the sale of the properties and have spent ample time helping me strategize overall about what to do with these properties.