But then we have to get into talking about the passive loss rules, which may prevent you from actually being able to claim a tax loss if the deduction is more than your rental or other passive income.Or you can claim the actual expenses (gas, insurance, etc) for the vehicle and regular depreciation, proportioned by the percent of business use of the vehicle.  

If yes, am I eligible for a 1031 exchange even though I claimed the home as my primary residence when it was rented? 

Lots of medical in KC - hospitals, medical school, etc.

The previous owner claims they never had the titles to these trailers, so that is not option. 

I left that job to join Roche Tissue Diagnostics where I repair medical instrumentation across the Midwest. 

@Brett Riemensnider You can claim expenses related to your rental property, even with a homestead loan, by allocating costs based on the 75% rental usage.

This may be needed to protect you from claims later.4.

With enough knowledge you can make a educated decision on which approach you take.My experience:I personally don't sign up for any program who take you aside during events and try to sell packages that is just blatant sales strategy.Once you sign up there is every attempt to make you sign for their programs for bookkeeping, registered agent, LLC or corp setup fee which have ridiculous even with platinum membership.Basic standard structure they suggest to take advantage of multiple deductions can be easily achieved by proper education or work with a good firm like https://wcginc.com  who is local to you.A umbrella C-crop to manage all other LLC properties and take advantage of many tax deductions that are not available with a llc, its also used to take losses up to 100K as startup expenses and dissolve the entity after few years.Few LLC entities for investing in Real Estate, etc preferably in Wyoming or Nevada ( you can find many companies online who can do this for $150 compared to anderson $1500-$3000) , they will claim they have a secret Operating agreement which is bogus.They certainly try to take advantage of tax loopholes and claim to be smart people, my view they are just taking advantage of numbers as per their own statements.

Los Angeles County continues to grapple with devastating wildfires that have claimed five lives, destroyed over 2,000 structures and forced the evacuation of at least 130,000 residents.

I'm sure they also told you their systems will protect against aggressive attorneys and creditors and make you invisible so nobody will ever dare file a claim against you...it's all a money grab.If you are a sole proprietor I am putting my money on the fact a single member LLC in the state in which you live/own real estate will suffice.