It hadent been farmed in a while , so he came in and cleared the trees and started farming it . 

@Gabriel Garcia It isn't clear what you are getting for you money.

The seller asked for a 3k non-refundable deposit, and I only get this back if the title company cannot provide clean and clear title for us to close.

I was thinking 10-20% down, 15 year note at 4% and she could work on paying the 1st mortgage then once that is paid then the note would be free and clear.     

Get the seller to sign the purchase agreement, let them know you need it to at the very least do a title search.make sure your title company does assignment or double close or whatever.title comes back clear go back to buyers with your price.get assignment signed.submit to title.set closing date.get paid

The "top rated" agents get offers accepted a high % of the time, which is clearly not your strategy. 

If the return per door works out better than if you hadn’t done mail outs and list buying, it’s pretty clear it’s working. 

2) Be clear on process and follow it to a tee every time.  

One thing to think about is that if you're contemplating doing a 1031 and buying a $500K investment and then converting that into your primary you will probably make even less than you are now on the investment house in the interim because you'll be trying to get investment cash flow out of a property that isn't best suited for investment use.It can certainly work but I sense a lot of other concerns than just the desire for a $500K primary residence.A lot depends on your geography but one option would be to do the 1031 and supplement with cash from the sale of your primary and purchase $500K of investment property free and clear. 

I bought a duplex in Long Beach where the rents were 1900, rehabbed the whole property myself, got the rents up to 2500, and now I’m clearing about 1000k a month after all my maintenance vacancy, etc factored in.