I think a good tax person is worth their cost.  

Taxable income is not cash flow.There are a myriad possibilities for taxes.

Prioritize properties with strong rental potential and set aside reserves to handle unexpected costs.Finally, familiarize yourself with tenant laws in your target market, especially in Portland, and consult a real estate-savvy CPA for tax efficiency and legal considerations.

Here are the pros as i see it: easy (no purchase necessary, you know the property), likely prop 13 property tax discount, possibly below current rate loan.  

Also, we'll need to know what your other expenses will be (taxes, insurance, etc.). 

The way I'm looking at it, if my spouse and I only do employer matching for the 10 years we would have more than enough in there and still 10 years out from being able to access it.I do plan on doing 401k loans for deals if the numbers check out, and I've considered rolling over some of our 401ks into roth IRAs to access our contributions but we'd have to pay taxes out of pocket (a big hit to cash flow) and we couldn't touch it for 5 years.  

I could also see 15% corp tax and the whole no tax on tips thing.

It is not cash flow positive at this time due to high interest rates and property taxes.

Many banks handling tax escrow accounts for mortgages have mistakenly thought there was one tax due twice/year or totally missed one of the taxes.Investors should research the SEV and the Non-Homestead property tax millage rates to project what the property taxes will be after adjustment.

And if there is a "why" then the 1031 is what you want to use to get into a new property and defer all tax.