And, I think its fair to say that we all may forget what people say or the information they provide, but we all never forget how someone treated us and made us feel! 

Large and national players may treat you and your property as just a number. 

Fear about staying in DST though, as it sounds they will treat remaining DST investors worse than those in the REIT. 

While getting treated badly at work is a bummer I just see a lot of sour grapes in the post and I am not sure this is the forum for it. 

So there might not be enough gain to need a 1031 exchange.If there is enough gain to justify the 1031 exchange then simply treat your replacement property as you would any other investment like @Daniel Osman said. 

Being a real estate professional allows you to treat the income as non-passive, allowing higher high income tax payers to pay less in taxes.

LTV & CreditEliminate the emotion and treat this like the business it is.In my opinion it does not matter who the borrower is as long as they have a track record of ATR (Credit)And I feel comfortable with the leverage (LTV)

Since this is a post about our loan shop, I'll highlight that we are a small loan shop (30 employees), family-owned just trying to get more clients by placing their loans well and treating customers well.

They want someone who is going to treat their employees and their customers well.

Further, people committing to a rental for 6 months or more tend to treat the furnishings with much more care than the 30 day stay tenant.