Update:  The property I was targeting is no longer available, so no urgency and no need for a reverse 1031 anymore.But thanks for all the great advice, and feel free to continue the discussion for the benefit of others.

Rates are kind of all over the place in Rome. 3/2 apartments outside of down that aren't very desirable can be $750-850.Downtown lofts ON Broad Street (the main road in our town) are all between $1,100 and 1,800, with half the square footage as our house would offer.Downtown houses near ours, but with 1,000+ more sq/ft than ours...rent for $2,500 or more.To the best of my ability, once it is renovated, it will be very desirable to our target market tenants (young professionals).

I'm leaning towards buying a smaller house for my family of four with a conventional 20% mortgage, and renting out my current home to get started, the reason being:1) Conventional mortgage can get me much lower interest rate (I've heard a full 100 bps lower vs. investor loans- someone please verify)2) Current house is a bit bigger than we need (2,800 sq ft) and by downsizing to a smaller and cheaper house (thinking <2000 sq ft, $175K target price), we can get more in rental income from the bigger house while assuming a smaller monthly obligation from the new smaller houseBelow are some numbers to clarify the situation.

@Jose MartinezYou should only blog if you have one of the following:1) A desire to write quality content and continue to produce it in deference to your target audience.2) Additional help (like interns) that want to do some writing and need a place to cut their teeth.Other than that, blogging for keywords alone will end up eating up more time than it's worth, or just producing content that nobody wants to read.

What is your target renter?

I'm trying to target investors, but I will also sell to individuals as well.

Build a database.Then you can either target the houses or areas that your cash buyers are interested in..

Or raise it by $50 this year, and another $50 next year to get it to the $875 target.

Get off the internet and pound some doors down.

XYZ" Cash Home Buyer - geared towards motivated sellers; XYZ being multiple different DBA's to target local clientele, such as Oklahoma, Texas, local area codes, cities, etc.Also, try different approaches on your marketing, and just because it wouldn't work on you, don't assume it won't work.