It is all about RELATIONSHIP BUILDING ...The BPO efforts are your "good faith effort" to demonstrate a willingness to fulfill the asset manager's need for quick and accurate results.

Similarly Justin is demonstrating that his intent is uncertain. 

@Greg Morton you might be surprised how well this works to launch an investing career...send me a PM and I'll forward you a presentation that demonstrates how I did this and received a 200% ROI, collateralize and leveraged the property to buy and flip houses, pulled a huge HELOC to buy other properties, and currently rent the same house at $1,200/mo. with a $400 note payment...maintenance free...and a debt that will be paid off in 5-6 years entirely.

But the bottom line is your ability to socialize, influence others, gain trust and demonstrate your expertise and knowledge.

But you would have to hold it as a rental for a while in order to demonstrate that your intent was to hold and not primarily for resale. 

For the ATL market, especially things near downtown in developing areas, as a cash sale, should I have asking price plus some percentage beyond that to demonstrate proof of funds?

(sure equitable interest may or may not hold up to judicial scrutiny though, from a business perspective, hanging your hat on this legal theory seems unwise)Being a broke college student who had no experience and wanting to do everything right, you'll have a hard time assigning these contracts since you don't have an established list of buyers who trust your judgement or some other way to demonstrate your expertise.

I suppose I could choose to sell that park in order to buy some other buy & hold property. at a minimum, i'll do the necessary improvements and keep it a couple years to demonstrate improved income potential.

The most important criteria is to consider the level of experience, expertise and sophistication demonstrated by the 1031 Exchange Qualified Intermediary.  

This demonstrates that buying properties based solely on their initial return is unlikely to provide the long-term financial security people seek, as rents will not keep pace with inflation.