You mentioned W-2 income as part of a way to save on taxes. 

Even if you take the $250,000 the realtor mentioned it would sell for as your basis that would mean you're looking at an $80k gain: 380,000 - (250,000 + 50,000 improvements) = 80,000Since you want to buy a nicer home for your mom, a 1031 exchange may not be applicable if the new property is intended for personal use, as 1031 exchanges are for investment or business properties only.

Nowhere in their claim is there any mention of how many people get that list.. so all this does matter.Lastly I am willing to bet there are plenty of people that have send 2K mailers and not gotten any deals... so tha claim truly is factually wrong.So does your plan sound good...In my opinion it doesn't sound good...

We don’t know any PMCs to recommend in the area mentioned, but since selecting the wrong PMC is usually more harmful than selecting a bad tenant, you might want to read our series about “How to Screen a PMC Better than a Tenant”:https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/3094/91877-how-to-screen-a-pmc-better-than-a-tenant-part-1-services-and-processesWe recommend you get management contracts from several PMCs and compare the services they cover and, more importantly, what they each DO NOT cover.

Second, their website does not mention a single thing about COMPLETED projects.  

Maybe you already have it, but I didn’t see it mentioned.

The numbers you mention in your post are confusing - like $150k annual income from a rental property.  

I don't know that @Dave Foster earlier mention worked...I'll let him chime in as the expert, but you can 1031 for less it just results in 'boot' which is taxable.

The TIC as we mentioned. 

You better buy a great place, furnish it well, and take good photographs, not to mention iterate it with professionalism.