I know that you can achieve that in some parts of the country if you are patient and wait for the right situation.

Instead of 100 individuals, you have one large business.3) I get the satisfaction of 100% ownership of a particular piece of property.

Again, these may not increase your rents but will increase tenant satisfaction and reduce future costs and problems, plus give you a bit more to depreciate. - renovating a tenant feature.  

We are being patient and waiting for some better quality tenants and as a post I read yesterday on BP said, "it could take a month or more to find great tenants". 

I purchased my first property (4plex) back in September and have been renovating each unit which has been a huge undertaking considering that Murphy has been by my side the whole time and anything that can go wrong ha...

It means getting three bids for everything and using licensed contractors.The other option, if the repairs were agreed to and amended in the purchase agreement and not completed, you should speak to your lawyer about moving the closing date until they are done or holding back money in escrow until they are done by the seller and to your satisfaction.

Many folks get very intimidated by the constrained time periods for identification of potential replacements (45 days) and the entire exchange period (180 days) and think by being patient they can find properties over time that offset having to pay the tax immediately.Some folks figure they can take the additional 20 - 25% of tax and find good bargains within the time periods and have their cake and eat it too.Bottom line is it depends on your confidence level.  

Do you take actual satisfaction in doing it yourself and don't mind putting in the time?

Be patient with your investment decisions.  

It can be difficult with mental obstacles to bring good long term tenants closer to market, and there can be reasons to be patient too, however it is an opportunity.