In a perfect world the listing agents are legally bound to be impartial to all offers and represent the sellers best interest.

Inappropriate closing costs are one of the first places an audit of a 1031 goes to.  

Properties acquired for personal use such as your primary residence, personal vacation property or personal second home would not qualify for 1031 Exchange treatment.You can acquire replacement property that is held for rental, investment or business use, hold that property for a sufficient period of time in order to demonstrate that you did in fact have the intent to hold for investment purposes, and then later convert the property into your primary residence or second home.The critical component here is that you must be able to demonstrate that you did in fact have the intent to hold for rental, investment or business use should you be audited.

Where is your HUD-1, 1099's, required disclosures, where is the audit trail of escrow deposits and accounting of you paying off someone's mortgage, ever hear of federal settlement requirements or ALTA, money laundering, tax evasion, ?

But we also did a lot of really complex work, and the deal was pretty much that we'd never had a client lose an audit because we confirmed/tied down a lot more than many firms do.

Who knows what you would be given anyway, unless the borrower is required to have certified audits, for this, I'd skip that.

I have been through 2 years of IRS audits and came through with compliments from them.

IF A LOAN OFFICER TELLS YOU IT'S OK, IT WILL BE TEMPTING TO TAKE THE MONEY, BUT UNDERSTAND THAT LOANS ARE SPOT CHECKED IN AUDITS LONG AFTER THEY ARE MADE BY REGULATORS AND FINDING SUCH LITTLE WHITE OMMISSIONS ARE NOT A PROBLEM.

In an audit this puts you in a defensive position to rebut the presumption that you intended to sell within 12 months.

Play with your levers and reduce and audit all costs and increase income - but do it every year till the market tells you you are "there".And no disrespect to Carole G, but I hear this all the time - "I have to get this return or that return" - don't listen to that - lots of people who say this never do a deal because their expectations are rigid and/or unrealistic.