@Joseph Wright I think the folks you've talked to have missed two big things.1. 1031 is available only on property you purchased with the intent of holding for productive use. 

This was before I learned how to properly analyze a deal.

Having then paid them off, I'm left with the Bank's mortgage and hopefully some cash left over to Repeat.Is this the proper use of this method, in its basic form?

Then your property becomes neglected and a pain and you end up selling to someone who knows how to run a tighter ship and knows how to get your asset to perform properly.

It will just be different priorities and different products that different people will look for. 

But snide remarks like the ones I mentioned really don't do anything productive.

If you had your own attorney handle it, then they should have insured that your loan is properly recorded, so not a lawyer, no legal advice, but I'd think that worst case, you'd need to foreclose and take the house back if he doesn't perform.   

Your personal cash flow and DTI are going to be shot really quickly, and those two things are vital to production of wealth and your ability to leverage.

What is the spread between the products? 

Brian, the Fannie/Freddie product are great if the deal works for their structure.