Streamlining lead nurturing and qualification?

They will be nurturing the transaction until closing and there are many things that can go wrong. 

I’ll probably take a bit of a tax hit in order to 1031 without carrying the mortgage across.

For example, seller may have 4.5% debt and so current NOI is worth more to seller than a new buyer who has to pay 6.5% debt.Seller finance is a great tool too.My only caution is to NOT overpay for a property in exchange for seller finance at an attractive rate.Here is a hypothetical say market cap is 7.0%.New conventional debt is 6.5%.But seller will carry at 5%.With seller finance at 5%: What price does one pay?

The owners may agree to carry part of the financing, but you won't need them to stick around to transition operations.After acquiring the properties and assets you wish, you would either run your own business, or part-out and resell some of the assets.From your post, it does not sound like parting out the properties is a viable path and where you admit to having no experience with vacation rentals or the resort business, you might want to explore purchasing the business with the current owners hanging around for a bit to help you get your feet wet.Regardless of approach, it needs to have legs to be worth pursuing.

So your carrying costs can be quite large.  

One tool I've utilized extensively for personal and client acquisitions are seller carried transactions. 

I carry around a moisture meter and thermal camera for those very reasons because you never know what a couple of stains could mean behind sealed walls.

I would not hesitate to invest in Athens if the numbers look good;  new builds in Athens, to me, carry less risk for price correction than Hazel Green as well.  

Syndications are simply a business structure where a group of people combine to carry out a business or project.