Once you go with a minimum 6 month lease your turnover costs, potential damage, make ready costs, repainting and repair costs, all go down dramatically.  

If you paid $950k and only get $1M after selling costs, don’t bother with the 1031.

It’s definitely smart to evaluate the tax and cost implications of your funding options.

Would you rather set it and forget it and not need to refi again or rather take advantage of low/no closing costs on this loan and plan to be more aggressive on your rate at the time of your refi?

Happy to chat...being a local GC takes out a lot of the risk of the biggest variable for most investors (unpredictable rehab costs) and also allows you to consider more options than the average investor, with your rehab costs being significantly lower.

Sometimes, buying an existing property can be more cost-effective and less time-consuming and maybe require slightly less permits, etc. 

Do to the state mandates that require 100% reserves in all categories, combined with the rising cost of their neighborhood insurance policy, my strong recommendation is you find out what further anticipated spikes in association dues & if any possible special assessments are looming.

Taxes, costs, eviction complexity, etc are going to be a much bigger factor in your success than anything else.

Variable cost and CapEx are where I see most investors make errors on their Pro Forma.  

You have to put 5% down vs 3.5% down, rates are usually higher, but if you have strong credit, your PMI cost can be cheaper than that of FHA loans.