did you end up using them?

They have a place they could potentially close on by the end of the year, but its new construction and the closing is subject to change based on the builder (and the area was just in the path of Beryl, so that timeline could have been impacted), so if that's the only thing they're thinking of exchanging into, I'm inclined to suggest they consider consuming the losses now for simplicity's sake, especially if the exchange timeline can't be guaranteed to work out.

The low initial investment and high resale value made it an attractive opportunity.

Their systems make it easy on both us, and the tenants, and we greatly appreciate their owner portals and end of year reports for when it's time to file taxes.

I have credit in the high 700s, I have over 10 units, have done several refinances and buy and holds.  

The low initial investment and high resale value made it an attractive opportunity.

Surely some locations are saturated, but the demand from NYC area folks coming Upstate is still high.

Significance there is that Fannie and Freddie decided in March of 2022 that they were going to basically eliminate the 10% down option by adding high enough fees that lenders couldn't pass a fees test unless they were going to originate the loan at a loss. 

Laws and deadlines are very specific and missing something will end up costing your time and money.

Fees were a little high, but doable.