I'm a landscape architect by trade. 

5) If I did #4 above, could I then live in the house(s) & sell it 2 years later with no tax consequences (assuming the 250k/500k rule6) Who holds the monies to insure Unca Sam gets his taste?

However, I see moving the cost of dead beat tenants to the landlord as another symptom of our society divorcing individual consequences from individual actions.  

Definitely a trade-off, and it depends upon your approach plus preferences.Best Regards,Scott Price

Your education needs to include (this is not a complete list):1) Learning the general vocabulary of real estate2) Learning the different types of real estate investing3) Learning the rules/laws of real estate4) "Paper-trading" deals (analyse deals that other people have done to see how it works....

Mike,I sent a batch of about 2,000 postcards to Absentee Owners in select Denver zip codes w/ over 50% equity, whose homes had not traded for at least three years. 

Small operations that try to focus on several different lines of business try to be the jack of all trades and end up the master of none.

So there was an expectation for the appreciation and immediate cash flow, consequently the most appealing feature was the positive numbers.

One thing I can suggest right now is that your use of the word "flip" and 1031 in the same sentence won't work.  1031 exchanges are only available to investors who purchase property to hold for productive use in business trade or for investment.  

The lower price they would get with your "investor hat" on is the trade-off for not having to mess with cleanup, repairs & showings for who-knows-how-many weeks/months until it sells.