We plan on renovating each unit as they come available, increasing rents to market.

Avoid urban cities and target vacation destinations/national parks.A lot of successful people are keeping their hot markets on the down low.I would focus on an area that has demand and has a good outlook for continuing to increase demand, and then try to find good deals in that market and trying to create something very unique.

All adds up to a lot for a first-time investor, so proceed with eyes open.You're also right that small multi-family properties are hard to find because they are attractive to investors.

At that point, I want to re-evaluate the market and determine if we're happy with that, or if there should be some small increases after.

By reinvesting proceeds into like-kind properties, investors can defer taxes and potentially increase their purchasing power for acquiring higher-value properties.Key Differences:While both DSTs and 1031 Exchanges offer tax-deferred investment opportunities in real estate, they differ in several key aspects:1.

They were paying above market rent, but now with the crazy rent increases in the Phoenix area, they're actually paying a little below market.  

Again if you can get a deal done on a home for $1, sure then it can make sense but overall for most PML's that I have experience with and that are actually in the game of lending money and not seizing property -- it is not something that is very attractive to them.

If you're using regression to predict how much a market would appreciate by I think that would be a much easier regression task then predicting how inflation would increase the price of a gut rehab (increased parts and labor prices due to increased cost of manufacturing and increased cost of living respectively). 

Peyman just told me that the price is increasing to $11,800 (a 50% increase!)

If so, it would increase our monthly cash flow by about $30,000.