I will offer several solutions to sellers.

Then somebody mentioned 5% conventional on the duplex and I was both happy and mad at the solution!

Tim, There is an easy solution to this.

Crime exist everywhere, I'm more afraid of making a wrong investment since I'm not there 24/7 to monitor it.

Couple that with in tech there are extremely complex problems you have to solve that really the hope of a solution is only visible about 15-20 minutes deep into the analysis of the problem, and many times more.  

remember the keyword here is "exchange", 1031 is just change/exchange/delaying tax.If one wants to reduce the tax , they could come up with "other solution" for example aggregating PAL.

Sometimes the argument is that you're not there to monitor the tenants but there would've been a spoke in water/sewer bill which should've been a key indicator of occupancy rates in unit.

I don't like old lists lasting forever on BP, so my solution is just to email the current version to people if they want it.

Does anyone have guidance on cheaper solutions?

They won't qualify for any traditional financing because of lack of income.A reverse mortgage may be available.Tread carefully with solution #2.