There are large investment funds with thousands of single family homes, I can't image they have an LLC for each home.

Sole manager for these (small, < 2.5M in investor funds max) syndications has been convinced by his CPA that the only IRS-compliant method for determining ownership is by conversion to tax K-1 capital accounts. 

I am wary of regional banks after the issue last year where quite a few had to be bailed out in order for people to withdraw their funds.

I don't understand as in, I may genuinely be missing something so I will write this carefully.Why don't you just get transactional funding and wholesale to your heart's content?

Hard money, creative financing, or traditional financing should be viewed as different tools that you can use; try not to worry too much about finding one, singular way to finance every deal.For example, if you are buying an off-market deal from a family member, you may want to see if you can use traditional financing or creative financing since there's no competition and you'll get the most attractive/flexible terms.On the other hand, if you see a newly listed deal on the MLS, you may want to look at hard money since it can fund quickly like cash.Hard money loans are more expensive so you'll want to plan your exit before you get in whether that be refinancing into a long term note or selling the property.Hope this helps!

Can you find a way to squeeze some cash flow from other areas of your life to fund the loan payment? 

@Donald Howaniec another alternative to a 1031 is to invest in a syndication (or fund) where bonus depreciation is being taken on assets as they are acquired.

In my experience a good property is harder to find then the funds to execute the deal.

And if the damages exceed the security deposit I could take them to court to try to collect funds from the tenant.

Investing for your retirement is do be done with discretionary funds, not funds you need to live on.