You can exchange tax free into about a $2.8mm class B apartment complex.

I’m in same situation as you where I used to get top dollar B-class tenants and vacancies filled within a week.

High LTVs, short maturities, mezzanine debt, outside preferred equity, and multiple share classes (the recently popular A/B equity structure) all increase risk. 

Cousin A currently lives in one half of their primary residence and rents out the other half.Cousin B has a rental property they want to get rid of by doing a 1031 exchange.If Cousin B buys 50% of Cousin A's house as tenants in common, can A & B essentially switch over the rental income to B, whereby B reports all rental income and expenses on their taxes and A reports no rental income and expenses?

Really curious what part of Cleveland this is because this does not sound like C/B class area.

Hopefully, this first investment will launch our journey in real estate.Here are some criteria we have in mind:Not in downtown SacramentoClass C+ or B location, since we will be living in one unit (we just want a safe location)Units with shared walls, not ceilingsSeparately meteredFairly renovated or well-maintained (not a fixer-upper, but if one unit is renovated and the others need some work, we would love the experience of fixing and renovating)Can you think of any other factors we should consider?

Also lets say we accumulate 2 primary in 5 years, we can alway sell because appreciation would kick in ( lets say 5 percent times 5) so equity building is enough to do this in loop cycle.We can do this :    a---->b----->c----a---->d---->c :-) lolit's seriously the highest R/R tax-advantaged strategy we could have in real estate.

Option B: Buy Duplex.

b) If a client shows up to your open house after seeing one of your listings?

@Chris Rogers higher interest rates have caused most Class A property purchases to NOT cashflow for an approximate 3-5 years.So, many naive investors are chasing Class B, C & D properties to cashflow, WITHOUT fully understanding the scope of the additional risks involved:(Recommend you first figure out the property Class you want to invest in, THEN figure out the corresponding location to invest in.If you apply Class A assumptions to a Class B or C purchase, your expectations won’t be met and it may be a financial disaster.So, when investing in areas they don’t really know, investors should research the different property Class submarkets.