And a lot of start-up companies are migrating to this city as well, because of the efficient costs of living, the OSU campus that has thousands of students graduating and looking for jobs locally, and the availability of land.

I like you experienced a lot of pain trying to find experienced and efficient property manager's in Des Moines, so we ended up starting our own full service PM to handle our portfolio needs.

HELOC money is expensive money... so i think you need to take another look at the expenses and make sure you're including all of them - not just PITI.and you may know this, but i'll remind you - HELOC payments are usually interest only for the first few years during the draw period. 

This is the honeymoon period, doesn't get any better than this. 

I would say compare terms, seasoning period requirements (Assuming when you mentioned construction loan you're talking about a rehab project), response time of your rep, learn as much about their loan underwriting and approval process as you can.

There are specific rules for 1031 exchanges including:The replacement property must be identified within 45 days of transferring the relinquished property.The replacement property must be received within 180 days after the transfer of the relinquished property or the due date of the taxpayer's tax return, whichever is earlier.Special rules apply for exchanges between related parties (defined in § 267(b) or 707(b)(1)).Real property located in the United States and real property located outside the United States are not considered property of like kind.Cost Segregation StudiesA Cost Segregation study is an IRS approved federal income tax tool that increases near term cash flow by utilizing shorter recovery periods for depreciation to accelerate return on investment.

Unfortunately, this was likely an inevitable outcome and cost over a multiple decade period of risk exposure...along with not getting appraisal value for the illegal unit when you sell.

It very difficult, if not impossible to be “invisible” in today’s world and also be able to conduct business reasonably efficiently and effectively.  

Then I had 2 fridges die within about a 3 month period.

Is it easy to accomplish within a short period of time like within a couple months?