Great advice, thank you - I suppose my real price target is closer to 300-375k (still a wide range and could go higher if I really needed), but I didn't want to exclude any lucky deals I might find. 

We represent many companies an the standard question is "are there any in ground tanks" There are a few companies that will write a property with in ground tank in place but most will exclude the Liability for it.

the exchange only works for investments.You should stay at least 1 year so that any tax would be at the long term capital gains tax rate.I am guessing from all the other stuff I read here on BP, the section 121 exclusion (the IRS code that lets you exclude $250k single or $500k married when selling your personal residence if you lived 2 out of 5 years) can be prorated. 

.- 1BR+loft (sleeps 4) - 2019 gross rents (excluding cleaning fees/taxes etc) $42,396- 1BR (sleeps 2) - $35,238- Studio (sleeps 2) - $36,283 I have another 1BR + loft that I'm rehabbing, not renting yet but I expect it to pull between $35-40k; and tomorrow I close on a 3/3 new build, I expect that to do $55-60k (which is ambitious, but it's a great location with some unique features so I think it's plausible).  

Land excluded, would a 450,000 loan with 15-20% down be enough to construct these homes?  

The only way you can totally defer or exclude gains is to 1031 exchange to defer the investment portion and use homeowners exclusion for the remainder of the gains (up to $250,000 of gains for single, HoH, or MFS / $500,000 for MFJ taxpayers). 

For grins, do a loopnet search for Chicago or Cook County proper and then do one excluding Cook County. 

Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales decreased 3.5% last month.

Excluding Water Bill:Unit1: 410Unit2: 367Unit3: 480Unit4: 480Unit5: 420Unit6: 400Unit7: 430

Don't try to force them into good ones, or try exclude them from being good ones, just because of shortages, price spikes up or down, or things you can't predict.Cost to buy (as in asking price), cost to sell (as in comps), or rents at the time, alone are not reasons to buy or not to buy.