Most sellers of apartments will want to do a 1031 so they do not seller finance.

Where do people see values trending over the next 5 years?

@Alex Lee - A conventional renovation loan is not an FHA loan and requires a larger down payment...with the Homestyle renovation loan you can put down as low as 5%.If you can do Homestyle instead of FHA 203k, I think that is a bit easier since there are not as many regulations and requirements.  

@Collin Stewart I love house hacking and have been doing so for almost 30 years now.

After doing some research, I became less convinced than I was to start with.

We don't need sprinklers here, but if we would, I'd either do that or replace the lawn with gravel or something else maintenance free.

What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.?

In fact, it's a common and expected practice.What rule do you feel was violated?

I feel that I don't have enough experience to know if I could do better or worse.

Know 3 agents that were sued for NOT doing this!