I'm fairly confident from reading online we don't qualify for an exemption, but I'm trying to assess actual closing costs to trying and reduce them All details:Bought the house 2.5 years ago for $980K (left on mortgage $753K), we have a clause for an assumable mortgage for me to take over (I can keep same rate).

Fortunately, you will be able to to a 1033 exchange into new property and avoid any tax on the gain. 

Rental houses in your own name will be harder than an owner occupied house, but you may find a HELOC or fixed rate line at a local community bank, a credit union.

I'm looking to connect with like-minded investors in the Tri-County Michigan area who are focused on multifamily properties.

After looking into multiple skip tracing services and deciding on Smarter Contact, my partners and I were upset to find there were quite a few charges after paying $300 for the service; including a $140 fee to remove the "reply STOP to unsubscribe" feature.

@Jessica Heller I do have some ideas on this and it strongly depends on what you are trying to do but I would recommend to take a referral OVER just going out and finding it on your own. 

@Kenneth P FordRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

From what I understand, this isn't technically an income tax but a "community charge" based on income.

I think I’m more focused on long term gain, some short term cash flow is nice but I’m not planning to try and live on it or anything.

Hope you have had a chance to dig in on this website, a lot of great people, investors and overall a great resource to use!