@Brent Cullipher much appreciated feedback and counsel-- a great reminder to be assertive, thank you! 

Protecting your asset might mean being a little assertive. 

Well that was a metric crapton of reading, but here are the nuggets I pulled out of it:  (Emphasis Mine as bold and underline)In the link you provided, I could find nothing to back up your assertion, but found the following sections that back up mine.  

However, the true stupidity lies in making assertions about 10% COC returns on $30K investments being better than a million dollar property appreciating 3%. 

However, I ran across a few posts here on this site that assert that this practice is in violation of predatory lending rules with severe consequences.

I completely disagree with this assertion.

C- you need to consider a host of other factors: tax implications, liability, qualifying for loans, property appreciation, etc. after you consider those, if RE still seems like an option, I'd look at possibly acquiring a quality assert in your local market of Denver.

Be assertive and make sure you are winning.

A 1031 is possible, assuming you held the property for investment, but the IRS would assert you didn't hold it with the intention of investment, if it was a flip.I would be happy to answer any other questions you have, if you drop me a note.  

I have no factual basis whatsoever for this assertion, but I think something will hit consumer confidence and slow things down since there aren't any real systemic issues that anyone has found.