Is it possible to sell the duplex and 1031 it for the family property if we can prove that the pole barn was being rented out and producing income?

See below for the underwriting exception language from Freddie Mac's Small Balance program:When owner occupied or owner affiliated unit (non‐income producing), underwritten DCR is less than minimum programmatic market DCR (without owner’s unit income included in NOI) or less than 1.00x DCR (without owner’s unit income included in NOI) but includes collection verification of owner occupied unit rent to single asset borrowing entity or base recourse.

Take a friendly contractor with you or a friendly home inspector or a well know real estate agent that is a top producer in their firm.

This is what is used when running proformas to determine value at sale or refinance once the project is built out, leased up and producing income (or projecting these values during initial underwriting).

You need to have a buyers list and at the same time knowing what tools to use in order to find the right properties and produce comps. 

We assist investors in locating, acquiring, operating, and disposing of income-producing properties in the residential to commercial asset classes.

At the moment it is not producing an income, but could potentially produce more.

If you have all the information, a RE attorney can produce the simple one or two page document that you need in 10 minutes.  

I want my first investment to be real estate as it can produce monthly income.

If IRR falls below the required rate of return, the project should be rejected.Now, the real world definition:IRR is the rate of return produced by investing equity into a development project at the beginning of a project's investment cycle (this could be cash used for predevelopment costs, land close, and funds for construction) and getting repayment of original investment plus yield on the invested capital at the end of the project.