My vacancy is less than what I use. 8% equals 1 month vacant out of 12.

Recession does not equal housing crash.

simply pick one based on the conversations I've had with them and gut feel as well as the background / credit check (of which both are probably equally viable candidates)?

Usually you want a partner to compliment or provide equal value to go 50/50.

A landlord, a bank offering you a credit card, a car lender, and a mortgage lender, are all using different algorithms, and will all show different scores. 3 times 28 equals 84 different FICO scores per consumer.

The tax code says very little about the type of assets that can be invested in within a tax-sheltered retirement account.So, from the perspective of the congress and the IRS, mutual funds and real estate are equally OK for tax-favored retirement accounts.For a variety of reasons -some good ones and some not-so-good -  standard IRAs, 401(k)s, & other QRPs impose "artificial" restrictions on the assets that the account can be invested, thereby restricting you to the provided "menu" of investment choices.However, although congress and the IRS don't have much to say about what type of assets your 401k/IRA/QRP - they do care about "self-dealing" with those accounts and have put in place rules to prevent that."

Can I do 1031 exchange to avoid paying taxes on 100k or just the 25k Your 1031 needs to be on a property that is greater than or equal to your selling price and debt. 

Assuming the services are provided adequately and equally, which model provides the best value to me?

Networking is vital here.

Having experts in this space on your team who can guide you as to the IRS rules as you invest with and operate an IRA owned LLC is vital.