Chances are you have someone with honor transparency and integrity on your hands and that is very rare.If the answer is no... well, if he lied to the homeowner, why would you think he would not lie to you?

On the other hand, I'm not convinced pictures would always capture the details needed to serve this purpose.Curious to hear the thoughts of the expert hosts and property managers here.

@Jake AndronicoI’ve looked into them but have never executed one.Let me say they will be expensive and complicated.I think what you will find if one is trying to defer $50,000 to $100,000 in gain, it’s not going to be worth the time and trouble.On the other hand, if client is trying to defer gain of $500,000 to $1,000,000, it’s worth the time and trouble.I use First American Exchange for my own account a dozen times and they have been right on the money.Google them and reach out.Arn

He will be totally hands off and only role is to provide money.My goal is cash flow and another investment(same as my father).I have limited free cash on a tight budget but have access to a heloc loan for expenses if needed.

Generally if you only have a handful of rentals and you are fulltime doing something else (a W-2 job), it'll just make sense to claim the standard mileage deduction - @David Orr did a good job outlining all the related nuance to that.  

Based on my research we found out that you were trying to close on a cash out from another lender to have enough money for our transaction at hand.

I met him at an event in Oakland and was not impressed personally all he would say is he does big deals for big money.. and I know how hard it is to do business with those in his community it really surprises me how people followed and invested as much as they did.I feel is there is lot of money looking for hands-free investment and good returns.

You’ll learn way more hands on than spending money and another 6 months being led on by someone who is playing you.

It sounds like you know how to avoid this in the future, so what to do with the situation at hand?

They had equity in a rental and wanted to try their hand at flipping.