Would you want to pay out of pocket and use all of your $ and grow from there without getting into debt or would you try and get financing and go bigger?

So while you don't have to take out as much debt as you paid off in the sale you do need to reinvest that much whether it's new debt or you fill in the amount with cash of your own.

No problems with debt or insurance that way.

Good debt or not, debt is debt.

Exchanges work well for moving up to a bigger unit but they do not work if your goal is to reduce debt or take cash out.

She has no savings and no investments (yes, I know, we are working on fixing that) but fortunately she has no student loan debt or anything besides her car and credit card payments mentioned above.Now, I'm aware of some on the low and no down payment options for her (FHA, USDA, I'm almost positive she can't get a VA loan but I'll double check), but the sticking point would be the monthly payments.

And I satisfied $600k this year alone of 6%+ debt or commercial debt that was adjustable, callable and bothering me.  5.25% I would leave alone until I had at least 5 properties.

How long does it take before that helps you pay down some of your debt or create a financial cushion?  

It is difficult to scale without debt or partners with money.

Note that IRS liens attach to all property of the debtor located in the jurisdiction in which they are recorded.