@Attaullah Khan I agree with @Larry T. that your second question is too broad, regarding your first, we have attempted to get as long a term as we can but always look at shorter terms if the rates are better. 

P.s. don’t know why autocorrect changed your name in my first attempted response!

I attempted to do a "Cash for Keys" deal with a non-paying tenant.

That's actually one of the problems with 1031 that the IRS has a hard time resolving because there are so few audited every year it is difficult to create a large body of case law precedent.The law leans to subjective definitions of intent other than the few specific hard guidelines. 

I attempted to get a pre-approval but was denied because of my debt to income ratio ($100k student loans) What steps would you recommend me take in order to get an income producing property/investment?

If the dog attacks again, do what you need to do to defend yourselves.You need to open the lines of communication to get anywhere, and this is the cheapest way to do it.I'd at least wear a body cam (I do).

And ultimately the forums will develop even better for the attempt.

Well, three years in I realized that it's a system that is very hard to change and my little body can't do much to radically reshape a poor setup system that only hurts those that it is supposed to help.

We have no idea whether this is a member managed or manager managed LLC and it may not matter.If there is any question about whether a deed of trust/mortgage will be valid or invalid because a spouse may or may not have an interest in the property being acquired and pledged... as the title company (in my case) or the seller, you get the spouse's ink on the DoT and erase all doubt.Not attempting to give an answer, just some perspective from the owner-financer position which is likely zero about the lady and all about protecting dollars.

you know a person means business when they have a tape measurer affixed to their body :) congrats, man!