Instead, speak to the problems of maintaining a vacant house, or dealing with problem renters. etc.; show how you can solve those problems.  

Lots of well maintained "Grandma's Houses" that could use an updating.

Actually, HD doesn't have thousands of 1099s like carpet/cabinet installers, they actually hire one cabinet installing company to do it for them the required insurance is 2M/5M Liability among others, its a whole new different discussion. 1099s are used by most small businesses like part time bar tending, and large businesses who doesn't want to maintain more payroll, like a construction manager, project manager, tax consultant or legal consultant if they aren't incorporated.

I think all of us can maintain a sense of humility and an attitude of willingness to help others.  

Today we are a small successful company that maintains and manages over 200 clients.

It costs me a lot less time and money than maintaining several LLCs.

I agree with Nick and would take the $140k and leverage it for a easy to maintain rental in a good area of the city with easy access to transit.  

This will allow me to have a separate budget to maintain the homes rather then relying on the tenants to inform me.

However, my thought on this is to discount the interest rate to the buyer enough to offset the property tax homestead exemption and maintain this in my name.  

By doing it this way you show a complete custody chain for your funds to maintain the 1031.