Essentially identical to a sale with owner financing but the deed stays with the seller.Yes, you can 1031 into such an arrangement as long as the contract has been written so that in the terms all of the burdens and benefits of ownership have transferred to you. 

Purchase price: $75,000 Cash invested: $25,000 Bought the house in ok conditions.I fixed the garage, added a bathroom in the basement, and made it into a 4bed 2 bath.The basement is also ready for the bigger renovation I will do before I sell it.For now it a great rental.

As I said, there are other ways but I’m going to guess the vast majority do as I describe.Education is essential and having ‘A Why’ is important but at some point you have to put the phone or book down and execute.

I've heard of people being able to essentially powerwash the pipes from the inside, but I imagine that this could damage older pipes. 

There’s even a special version for wet places like bathrooms, laundry rooms, etc.

Quick introduction: I'm coming off my first investment, a deal where I'm househacking a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom townhome in San Jose, CA.

There is so much to share so ill keep this simple.Ive been investing for sometime outside of this area so I knew what I essentially wanted: multi family of some sort which I could live in and rent the rest to offset majority of cost.

I wasn't leaving the bathroom and kitchen fixtures in the same exact place, this is what caused me to have to get architect stamped drawings.

I'm envisioning putting in $25k worth of materials, which would give me new floors, new bathroom, new kitchen, expanded rear deck, drywall in almost the entire house, and updating HVAC and plumbing - this doesn't include my labor of course, but I work remotely, and July through October is my slow season, so it kinda falls into the perfect "pack the dog & your tools and go up to the house for 2-3 weeks to get some work done" calendar for me. 

This leak was likely happening before, going unnoticed, because there is damage to the kitchen wall and connecting bathroom.