Financially it's almost always better to leverage but less so in higher interest rate environments when there are good investment alternatives, and not everything in life is or should be done for purely financial reasons. 

It’s purely personal preference and ability to execute your plan.

If purely residential, creative use strategies and layouts can really help boost yields and the resulting quality of the product.

One says we need to "perform a 1031" the other said that it is essentially a pure exchange and no action is needed for my dad since it is an exchange and no money is changing hands.  

Focusing purely on the numbers.Opportunity Cost of Renting: No AppreciationLet’s start by understanding the concept of appreciation in the context of real estate.

Pure laziness I guess.

Very sound words from a pure business economics standpoint. 

That flips as you add units, anything 5+ for example the market for buyers is near 100% pure investor - so value will be mostly determined by rental potential (cap rate)

LLC creation for rental properties is purely a liability protection strategy. 

If you're looking at just a pure financial perspective with little/no room for personal comforts, the absolute best thing you can do is live in one of those tiny homes or something like that.