@Christine Lovett I think your mistake is your emphasis on how they can help you. 

If you want to get up to speed and avoid the mistakes others made, you have to learn from others mistakes.What has your mentor experiences been?  

We recommend that you consider the following risk criteria prior to selecting a Qualified Intermediary:(1) The technical expertise and experience of the Qualiied Intermediary(2) The level of protection provided by the Qualiied Intermediary1s errors and omissions  insurance coverage, which protects you against possible mistakes made by the Qualiied Intermediary(3) The level of protection provided by the Qualiied Intermediary's fidelity bond coverage, which protects you from potential theft or embezzlement of your 1031 Exchange funds by the Qualiied Intermediary(4) The practice of using Qualiied Trust Accounts or Qualiied Escrow Accounts to ensure that your 1031 Exchange funds are protected by law as fiduciary funds(5) The protections provided through licensing, auditing, and regulatory oversight by regulatory authoritiesAn experienced and professional Qualified Intermediary will understand these concerns and will be happy to discuss these issues with you.Hope this sufficiently answers your question and addresses your concerns.

The problem is it may take 5+ years of under performance to get back to the actual historical rate of appreciation as measured across all timelines with different ending points.Projecting short term trends into the future is called recency bias and it's a classic mistake that many investors make.  

All great, However, I am a fairly new landlord and cannot afford to make a mistake.

My mistake.

The next issue is that the house had been transferred from a trust of 4 family members 20 years ago and there was a mistake in the way the trust deeded over the houses to the seller.

First mistake is giving tenant B a gift card.

I made the mistake of not doing so with one property and it cost me lots.Justin

Ryan,Yup, you made a mistake, but all of us have at one time or another.