I discovered the world of podcasts and my eyes have been opened.  

My guess is since they're open about the 1 year occupancy requirement, you can likely do whatever you want with it after that time.

With residential, familiarize yourself with what areas you want to focus and what form of lead generation best fits you (cold calling, open house, door knocking, online presence).

Host an Open House for Realtors or Host and Open House for interested buyers.

I will keep my options open and probably scale back into residential until I build my pockets some for a heftier downpayment  

Secondly, when our rental properties that we purchase using the 1031 are bringing in rent, can we collect that money that comes from tenants, or does that need to remain in the 1031 for the 12 - 18 months that the 1031 has to stay open?

While she has stated "East Side", I realize this may be limited at this pricepoint, so I'm open to other neighborhoods as well. 

What do you think is fair compensation to hold the contract open for another 4-6 weeks, given what it will cost you and the risk involved?

in general that should work, but local bank in smaller town maybe more open to lend there, and have better understanding of the economics of that market.Accountant and Insurance, can be out of area.I hope that helps.

As it stands today I have 13 openings.