The rules are designed to prevent related parties from engaging in exchanges that shift high basis property for low basis property, followed by a sale of the low basis property, effectively "cashing out" without recognizing gain.If you sell a property to a related party as part of a 1031 exchange, both you and the related party must hold the exchanged properties for at least two years following the exchange.

Take a bit of that money and invest in learning - go to meetups and the many events that take place related to investing in the city - some for free and some paid.

I would look into your local Facebook pages for investors as well. 

His crony Hatti Day is the “real estate manager” of the property and actively avoids addressing any of the lies she makes related to the unit.

Looking to get into some smaller apartment buildings in the near future.As far as the difficulties of investing in Japan, I of course agree with everything said, but in my case I'm at near-native fluency and own and manage my own business separate from anything real estate related so even without permanent residency I've never had trouble getting a loan (except of course I can't get some govt backed ones like a primary residence mortgage) for business or investing.I'll try to get in touch with everyone local to よろしくお願いします。

I would recommend you and your husband get on the same page about future investing goals.

Here's their page called My Lodge Tax, for STRs. https://www.avalara.com/mylodgetax/en/index.html Process returns, Save time and hassle.

(Especially a 2-4 unit.)Do they have friends/relatives/co-workers that would rent rooms from them if they bought a property to show more income?

Managing a rental yourself can be time-consuming, especially if you're handling maintenance, tenant relations, and lease enforcement. 

I don't see it on the Oregon Real Estate site: https://www.oregon.gov/rea/licensing/Pages/licensing.aspx