Now, if you're in a neighborhood where one builder built 1500 homes in 2005 and all of them are 1600sf, you may be ok since everything is the same.... but that's generally not the case.The $/sf model is a lazy one and requires minimal research and unstable results.

They have a duty to investors to maximize recovery and minimize loss.

Thinking about how to minimize risk on current residence, while maximizing its appreciation to purchase a rental property... 

In a 1031 this involves purchasing one property for cash or minimal leverage and purchasing the other property for maximum leverage. 

In most instances, a general contractor is going to put in far more hours and have a lot more responsibility than a real estate agent, attorney or bookkeeper would, unless he's just being asked to do minimal project management. 

I went with REIT's cause my long term goal is passive income (big surprise) with minimal work (bigger surprise).

I'm looking at it from a "minimize expenses" perspective in order to get into the game and learn (hopefully break even)  then build from there as I've been looking for well over a year now.To complicate matters, I'm also looking for private funding to make it happen so if you're able to go the normal route, more power to you!

In my experience, much better to wait or lend to yourself via one of your entities to minimize the seasoning than settle for a commercial loan. 

With that background I was very happy going with eXp Realty since it's an online-only brokerage with very little pressure to produce and minimal fees.

A great way to get started would be with a 2-4 unit to minimize the risk for a first time investor.