There are many ways that the IRS has deemed appropriate to allocate tax basis between building(depreciable) and land(non-depreciable).One method is that you may want to see the ratio of land/building allocations of recent homes sold in your area.

This method leaves a lot of stress and unknown factors off the table and limits the pool of potential buyers to serious investors instead of dealing with the potential issues of individual buyers looking to buy a owner-occupied unit. 

I am not aware of any jurisdiction that will allow you to do it on your own as you must first start with a survey and grading plan and then the engineer will determine best practical methods for the stormwater.

These are only available for $2m+ institutional quality assets, however.

You're busy, "cheap" midwest houses are not what you want, invest in quality product (A/B neighborhoods), this will reduce your risk.

You and your boyfriend might be tempted save money doing the renovations yourself, but if you're paying someone else for labor and materials than you'll be more worried about quality work than doing an inferior rehab.

Tenants will talk and whether they talk highly about you or not is up to you and the quality of service you provide.

This is why the DST, TIC or a stand alone NNN property of your own make sense combined with the 1031.And while you're absolutely right to look deep at the actual costs and fees both entering and exiting a DST or a TIC project you can find cost effective quality returns that will rival or beat the stock market average - especially if you factor in tax savings and ongoing depreciation.The age old question on pay the tax now or pay the tax later can best be put into perspective running numbers. 

Just this week end we cashed out 3 buildings and have a mobile part, a VFW Hall and two commercial properties ready to sell.So ------ 18 years ago I went to work for an auctioneer - learned the business and became an auctioneer and started my own company.So-------- I would suggest that you look into selling your contracts (buildings) using the auction method of marketing ----IT'S GREAT - the great thing is you don't need to deal with a buyer's agent, their bank or worry about turn-downs due to any number of thing.

If I am purchasing a quality property at 20% or higher discount off of fair market value I don't even bother with numbers I just grabbed the deal before somebody else does.