Tony,the non refundable option is nice.

Since moving out, the husband developed alzheimers and now everything is being handled by the wife who is not use to handling the landlording, and also seems now to have medical problems.She told my brother and sister in law that she needed to sell the house.

The first issue that jumped out at me is that you have to have the intent to hold for investment in order to qualify for 1031 exchange treatment.

I do have connections in this area because I've lived here for the past three years and will also no doubt be traveling to DC for non-real estate reasons.

As a Sole P you lose some tax-free fringe benefits because you cannot participate in company-funded employee benefit plans like medical insurance and retirement plans.

see what I mean, you are cutting your own throat by putting out solid numbersas to how you find the property...non of thier business how you find it, you have contacts that assist you in locating property and thats all they need to know now i just need to heed my own advice and life will be good lol

The reason he is doing this is that the interest on owner occupied homes is lower than non-owner occupied.

About 20-ish years ago our State Supreme Court (lawyers, of course) declared that individuals have the right to choose their own attorney, and thus non-compete clauses in attorneys' contracts could not be enforced (a non-compete clause would prevent an attorney who left one firm from going to another in the same area).

I don't think a non-compete contract would have any bearing.

I just watch an informercial which indicated that you can by properties seized by government for non payment of taxes by paying the outstanding taxes.