All the City, State and Federal Tax and Down Payment advantages are with First Time Home Buyers.

As others have said there is no way for you to access those funds for personal use without taking a distribution which will be a taxable event...3. 

I had a consultation with a solar panel salesman today and he quoted me 29k for 18 panels, however the final price would be 13k after New York and Federal tax credits plus a holiday discount.

But since it was being used for investment when you sold it you also qualify for a 1031 exchange.If you find that you still have any taxable gain leftover after the primary exemption, then you can indefinitely defer that tax and not have to recapture any depreciation in a 1031 exchange.

One contractor was at the planning dept the other day who just got out of federal prison earlier this year.

@Bryan Cavellier, You can 1031 with any US property including Guam, the USVI and ...drum roll- The Northern Marianas Islands (go figure but I actually had a realtor from there in a class of mine recently) into any other US or one of those territories.  1031 is a federal statute so it's applied the same in all locals with just a few variations state to state at the state level. 

Knoxville has some good ones like First Tennessee, Pinnacle Financial Partners, Y-12 Federal Credit Union.

There is much confusion about the 4% and 6% in property taxes.Non owner occupied property is taxed at 6% of the value to get the taxable value.This does NOT mean your actual property tax is 6% of the purchase price for rental property,In reality property taxes are about 2% of the purchase price for rental properties and about 1% of the purchase price for owner occupied properties.Google Greenville County Property Tax estimator and play with it and get a sense of how it works.3.

If they require an inspection, keep in mind you will not be able to fix any issues as it is a federal crime to alter a HUD home in any waySo in summary, it can be a very difficult and costly process to activate utilities and in many cases not possible

Rather the equity than the taxable gain.