The 1031 process starts with the sale of your old property and a qualified intermediary must be in place prior to the sale to document and hold funds.  

Every time money exchanges hands, typically two people are happy about it and have accomplished a goal.Your second ressource is energy; this includes your creativity and your negotiation skills and what some people call financial engineering - aka putting deals together.

If I have properties, but they are not in an LLC, does that still qualify as a company or self-employment?

We have also seen them set up 401k's for client's who did not have and did not plan on having qualifying ("earned") income. 

Some properties on the NW side that I was interested in qualified for this.I understand that 2-flats and maye 3-flats don’t cash flow often, and I think that’s OK for me right now.

If you qualify, there are better options than FHA with its high costs of financing the FHA MIP on the loan amount and the monthly MI.Look at 1% to 3% down programs with closing costs paid for buyer

Kerri - thanks for the  post ...consider  2 steps :1)  refinancing the  FHA loan to a conventional loan  to  eliminate the  FHA mortgage insurance  ..the  note rate might be  slightly higher than your present 3.875%  rate  but the  removal of the  FHA MIP  will likely leave you with a significantly lower  payment  that you have now  .2) use a  HELOC ( home equity line of  credit )  to  payoff  whatever  other  debts  need to be consolidated .....the  required payment on these  are  " interest only " payments so try to make a  larger than  required payment so the line balance can  decrease ......rates  are in the  5-7%  range ....interest paid  no longer can be written off  .......most lenders  will  go to a 90% cltv ( combined loan to value ) level on these  ( as long as you qualify)

"Deciding" to artificially lower these amounts in order to qualify for a mortgage is otherwise known as mortgage fraud.

Presented me with 3 finalists, all qualified. 

Chris, to qualify for VA you have to be able to intend to live in the property for at least one year.