You will also be less likely to miss opportunities for tax deductions, etc, because you’ve been tracking all along rather than pulling everything together at the end of the year.

With pulling out your equity (or selling), you can diversify and buy more.I did sell one of my places and used that money to buy two others. 

If you approached them in a way that you had a solution to the eyesore in their neighborhood they would be very receptive to talk and perhaps share contact details about the home owners son if they have them.

And a ton of fun in the day.I'm sure the guy is making money, but pulling in the kind of numbers Armando was pulling in back in the early 2,000's, no way no how.

But also, even as Joe points out in his book, the true value of a syndicator is pulling together all the pieces.  

I would be very careful in working with a 1031 Exchange Qualified Intermediary that provides ("sells"0 replacement property solutions as part of their services. 

I am actually doing a flip right now and hard money lender isn't the easiest to give us a loan for the rehab (draws verse pulling all at once, which is normal).

I wouldn't recommend an ADU and take that money and invest it where you can pull capital out faster. you can do much better.

So the deal ends up falling out or they take forever to find solutions. 

Simply gifting him half the property now wouldn’t immediately allow him to claim the exclusion without fulfilling this residency requirement, I don't believe.One thought would be to use a HELOC to pull just enough equity out of the current home and use it to buy a smaller home, or at least the down payment.