One of the most important elements in order to qualify for 1031 Exchange treatment is your intent to hold the property for rental, investment or business use purposes. 

(With 2Fs there’s still an element of owner occupants driving up the price, though not as bad as for SFs of course.)I would also say you could just wait for the rare MF in the rural area to pop up for sale or, even better, approach the few MF owners directly, but since you mentioned a job-related move I’m guessing you wouldn’t have the luxury of time to try either of those.

Any lead paint / asbestos / environmental issues?

But the land we bought for our neighborhood development has been a gigantic learning curve regarding what the city council, architectural review board, department of environmental management, and other agencies will require you to comply with.

Full stop.If you are buying multifamily, spend some time listening to Old Capital podcast and Best Ever Real Estate podcast, both of which focus on multifamily.If you are wholesaling, you probably do want a course or a mentor...this is fast and furious and there are a lot of state-specific things to learn.And there are other niche elements, such as mobile homes, short term rentals, self storage, commercial property.  

There's even an anti-wealth sentiment among many, who portray it as "consumerism" or anti-environmental.

There will always be the people element (eyeball-to-eyeball with prospective tenants and suppliers), but STEM is growing in importance.

Like Prime WEst coast notes defaulted or not sell for a lot more than a NPN in some rural OHIO down or in Detroit for instance.So as you go about learning about this .. that is one key element  RISK = PRICING  .. now what most of the Note type gurus do is they do the same as you see wholesalers here on BP doing trying to buy from individuals.. most that have done seller carry back.. and the more motivated individual may be dumb and sell the note at a huge discount without realizing what they did.. there are companies that specialize in this.Every time I did a seller carry back note I would get O i don't know 5 to 15 yellow letters wanting to buy my note at a discount.. its a very large industry.I have spent my career in the performing note space....

If you take advantage of new technologies: thermal mass electric resistance heating elements or electric air-2-air or ground-2-air heat pumps (especially ductless units with split heads), electricity can actually be cheaper.We have no oil heated properties and whenever we pursue a property heated with oil, we determine the cost of converting it to natural gas or electric and bake it into our analysis.  

Due to environmental concerns, (nitrates, nitrites) and new developments that "don't want to be next to a trailer park" (although they built and bought next to your park) Health Departments in many municipalities are NOT renewing permits.