Real estate is a play on housing supply & demand, as well as population & job growth, whereas precious metals are a play on rising inflation and lack of confidence, as well as global commodity demand. 

@Dave Foster is going to be your guru for 1031 Exchange help.

Still evaluating and talking to lenders, won’t do it until I feel 100% confident.

Finding a great mentor also takes time because the relationship needs to be fostered and built, just like any other relationship.

Also you can shorten the inspection period if you have a great inspector on stand by and confident he can knock the report out within the due Dillinger period, 30 day close, higher EMD is a nice touch, and if you are staying there a longer time and are cash flowing nicely it may be worth it to have a escalatory addendum to the offer showing going up a certain dollar amount if someone matches your offer and keep that going until you see the property not worth it to you anymore.

Quote from @Dave Foster: @Grant Nelson, To save you a lot of time initially ask the syndicator up front if they can give your mom a tenant in common interest in the property owned by the syndicate. 

If it were me, I would invest a portion of it passively into apartment syndications with an operator I know, like, and trust that is in a market that I feel confident in.

We've found a number of new developments that have reasonably good prices, but are not feeling all that confident that it will be a good long term investment that will appreciate vs a single family home.

They have been at location for 15 years and their business model thrives in struggling economy so we're confident they will renew.

Just don't sign a representation agreement unless you're confident in that agent because that will lock you into only working with 1 agent at a time.