When we bought the property, the area was “desirable” bc its close to a city/metropolis...jobs, city life etc.

I've had a desire to get into flipping for over a decade.

I chose to releverage the desireable ones and 1031 the less desirable.I found the replacement properties mostly off market, through mail. 

Many good tenants are smart and realize the owner should be paying the PM fee so they avoid those properties so now the ones charging the tenants are left with a less than desirable pool of tenants.

To get the desired protection, you have to follow some rules to create a separate identity of the LLC such as maintaining it's separate book, singing all the lease in its name, and more.

I am employed but have a desire to replace my income with rental income to fund my (hopefully early) retirement within 10-15 years. 

If it's the one on Diamond Drive in Riverview, this is not a desirable area and can be quite dangerous.

I’ve seen an LOX written to say some versions of the following; 1) This new property has a garage and I need a garage. 2) The new property has more/less sq. ft. and we need more/less space due to x (having a child, downsizing, etc.) 3) The new property is in a different, more desireable school zone (if applicable). 4) The new property is closer to where I work (or go to school, etc.)Although it isn’t always an ideal living situation for some people, I would highly encourage anyone in your situation that is investment-minded to use each of your VA loans back to back for each of you to buy a 4-unit building as the numbers tend to work best on those here in Clarksville and it would make sense, as long as the numbers work, of course, to get as many units as possible with zero out of pocket while you can.

Half the neighborhood is in trailers and RVs in the driveway still, but the finished houses are selling because we are still a desirable place to live.

If you know the Madison area, that would be good to know in your post.My short background: I currently own 2 duplexes outside of Madison in a desirable suburb but it is also getting quite overpriced.