So far, we have received this advise from appraisers in the Maple Heights area: 1) Attach all offers so the next appraiser can better understand the market value, 2) Provide a letter from the Maple Heights Building Department discussing the addition of the egress window making the bedroom conforming livable space, 3) provide comps for similar properties sold in the Maple Heights area (these do not have egress windows), and 4) create an itemized list of improvements and cost for renovations to the property.We are grateful to the Bigger Pockets community for their advice as well. 

We focus on exceptional customer service by aligning our solutions with client needs, while innovation drives us to continuously improve processes and embrace new ideas.

To start with rental properties, improve your credit score (aim for 620+), save for a 20-25% down payment, and educate yourself with books like Real Estate Investing for Dummies.Research your local market using Zillow and Rentometer.

Increase Your Cost Basis: Document and include the costs of significant improvements made to the property in your cost basis.

The emotional / confidence factor does matter when it comes to conviction to hold over the longhaul.4) Are you improving or decreasing in the quality of area you are going into in order to acheive this cashflow in PGH?

Thats how they know your properties condition has “improved”.

You may be able to factor in certain improvements to your personal residence so when you do move out, you can be eligible to depreciate it.

Hey Dave, since I have mortgages on these properties, would it make sense to bring cash to the exchange to cover the mortgage amount (or pay off the mortgage before doing the 1031) and improve the cash flow for the newly acquired property?

I am not going to do any improvements to the land, just improvements on paper etc.

Learning from this data, negative MoM real estate private investment occurred for FOUR QUARTERS dating from Q3 2008 , it's all negative until Q4 2009.In this 2022/2023 downturn cycle, we started the negative performance on CRE on the 4th quarter, so if cycle repeats the same, at very least we have to wait for another two quarter data to see the improvement if any.Learning from 2008 experience, the CRE is stabilizing only *after* Fed reduced the FFR, I dont think it's a coincidence that bond market started expecting Fed to decrease rate by April 2024 next year.