(as I said, I consulted with the local power company before doing this)I am not yet an expert on the laws of North Carolina, but it does appear that the specific law there is written to exclude properties built before 1977, which is what I am looking at.

I must go check on this again, but I believe we are legally required to accept cash as payment {coins excluded}.

A married couple who file a joint return may exclude up to $500,000 of gain resulting from the sale of their principal residence once every two years if: a.

Although the law does not exclude any particular species from qualifying as an ESA, commonsense will nearly always prevail.

You might see if there are any such interests on the secondary market that you could identify and buy.Purchasing Tenant-In-Common interests, Delaware Statutory Trust beneficiary interests, Land Trust beneficiary interests and other "disregarded entities" qualify for 1031 Exchange treatment, but Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code specifically excludes any kind of partnership interests for 1031 Exchange treatment. 

or can I exclude the $500K first, then apply any further gain/my income towards the loss carry forward?

"Getting back to our original agreement that the unit needs to be left in as good or better condition as upon move-in, excluding normal wear and tear, this is what we need to do __________________."

@Jeremiah O ,If you sell within 3 years after it being your primary residence you would meet the requirements for the Home Sale Exclusion(still have depreciation recapture) and you're able to exclude the gain; however, if you keep beyond 36 months after moving out you will pay capital gains/recapture on the entire gain.Now it is 100% treated as investment property.Here is a link in which we were just discussing this.

I would then only have to wait 3 days (excluding the date of delivery, weekends and holidays) to file the eviction.

That means (excluding Section 8) that they are almost always being required to be in some sort of financial planning classes.