@Rachael Britton You do not need a realtor to submit an offer for a property, but if you are dealing with the Seller's Agent directly, understand that unless/until their status changes to Transaction Broker, they will continue to be the Seller's Agent, meaning they are only working in the Seller's best interest and owe you basically nothing besides fair and honest treatment.

You also will likely want to understand the costs included in purchasing and renovating that either get capitalized or deducted or no treatment.

In order to have long-term capital gains treatment, outside of inheritance situations, you must have owned the property for at least 1 year. 

I have heard a story or two of people having the management company sending video walk thru of day to day operation but a video may not be the best way to visually see things.

., Without documentation that the property has been held for investment it would not qualify for 1031 treatment. 

To get a visual, is a basement dirt floor, no entry, but private; 1st floor kitchen & living room, however they just threw a stove & frig, in a room, so, I would have to put in an actual kitchen; 3rd floor 2 bedrooms & full bath (its nasty and needs a full gut), 4th Floor is an attic that is like a full floor so it's a nice perk to store stuff; but the condition is beyond what I can describe...it's like you owned a building for 50 years and you did no renovation EVER and that's the condition. 

Even the most well documented exception in the special treatment of one borrower over another is going to get the lender fined or worse for not applying that same exact treatment to all borrowers.

You can do visual inspection first though for certain properties.

So I get the worst of both worlds treatment. 

He gave me the same treatment.