What I love the most is two fold, the interest paid back on the loan goes back to you, the fees to do this are extremely minimal. 

Purchase price: $70,000 This was a 3 bed 1 bath that I paid for.

Based on what my real estate agent thinks that this quote will be, roughly, and the after repair value, it looks like I could buy this property in cash, spend a month or two fixing the damage, and then put a mortgage for roughly 1.6x what I paid for it and thus have a cash flowing property at a few hundred dollars per month and a little more money in my bank account ready for a down payment on the next deal.

If you paid $950k and only get $1M after selling costs, don’t bother with the 1031.

I'm finding it hard to believe that Xero doesn't have the ability to do this will all their custom reports stuff.In Xero I can't figure out how to get a view in a report how much the principal has paid down over the selected time period. 

We paid off our primary home last year and have been slowly getting the courage to jump into the investing market where we live in the Pacific Northwest.

Sounds like she has a loan on the property still so the only way to get the deed into your name is to have the loan paid off like normal. unless she has an assumable FHA loan. 

And even though a few borrowers have had bankruptcies, and I had to foreclose on another when the balloon was not paid these were really no risk and just delays of payment.

I don't see a scenario that you'd be paying their agent - There are 4 ways your buyer's agent gets paid (at least here in TX):  1.

I download reports to present to my clients during property walkthroughs, which is why I opt for the paid version.