If our agent pays him via checks and bills us at closing, does this have any +ve or -ve impact on the taxes? 

I'm particularly passionate about building wealth via real estate investment.Outside of real estate, I enjoy being out in the nature .. 

To the degree, one is realistic, the probability of finding a replacement property increase.Say you want to sell a fourplex to trade into and buy via 1031 a 20 unit apartment building.And the market cap rate is 6% but you want to buy something that offers a 6.5% cap rate, you probably won’t be able to find it.

Quit Claim Deed & Due on Sale Clause: Transferring ownership via a quit claim deed can sometimes trigger the due on sale clause, which allows the lender to demand full repayment of the loan.

Lenders often have 'in house' capital to lend that can be accessed via exception or compensating factors.

Let me know if you are open minded about sharing your insights with me via audio / video.

They got into their many problems via in-action and that is their MO, 95% say no. 

HOWEVER, my question is: given our goals/strategy, when analyzing returns for potential deals on the single-family rentals, along with a relatively low cash-on-cash return of roughly 1-2% should we allow ourselves to consider/count on 1) modest appreciation growth of only 3% year over year, 2) expense increases mirroring the current CPI of 3.5% and 3) low rental upside of only 1% (or even 0% given current market conditions).For example, if a deal gives a TOTAL return of roughly 15% year over year for 10 years but only starts out at about 1% cash flow via long-term rents, is this a good idea?

What you could do is use the equity from your current rental via a cash out or second mortgage and use those funds as the downpayment for the property that has an assumable mortgage. 

I know you cherish your cleaners and handmen, but I would really appreciate it if you could so kind to share them with me, via private messages.Thank you!