Use leverage but use it cautiously.

I just want to add a cautious note that in the long run, only few professional money managers can beat the SP.For you, look like syndication is a good choice.

I agree with the sentiment on this thread in response to your post.You can't be afraid to move or you will never move, the time will NEVER be right for the cynic or unreasonably cautious.  

I'm cautiously optimistic as college students usually don't pay right on the 1st so 50% is pretty normal.

I can’t figure out if I’m being to cautious here.

Of course right now with Covid, the mortgage lenders are being more cautious.

sounds like the one with no real equity is really an owner occ type house .. just sell it .. you wont have any tax or very little.the other one you can do the 1031 on and probably makes sense.just be cautious though grass is not always greener.. 

if you don't have experience and you are overleveraging yourself, I would be very cautious and I would not do anything out of my area of expertise. 

I would be cautious about making an offer on something like that because you will have a difficult exit strategy.I am not trying to discourage you at all, I just hear your story and scratch my head wondering what kind of Seller let's go of a property that gives him $8K per month AND gives the Buyer $16K at the closing, and only gets $20K to unload it so he can carry the note. 

You're looking for an escrow agent though, not a title company (even though title companies do escrow so some may do it for you)As far as them selling it to someone else while you're doing due diligence, this varies wildly and you need to be cautious.