I'm still learning the Philly market, but have been involved with settlements on investment properties with a couple of partners.

I am a firm believer that confidence comes from competence and organization. right now i need the later to fall into place as a framework to build competence around

Show enough down that pays the commissions and settlement costs!

Dear Fellow Investors,I paid $ 600 for a letter from a structural engineer to tell me that a particular crack in the basement wall was NOT a structural crack but simply a typical settlement crack.The above was done because I am a licensed RE Broker, licensed Home improvement contractor, but I wanted an expert opinion from a professional who had a "higher" grade of license than I did.

The agent ended up paying the claim in settlement.

She went to an attorney and they said that it was not easy to prove that the previous owner knew about the issues and it was expensive and there was no guarantee of a settlement. 

Robin, I did not offer an easy answer but I hope I provided a framework for comparing the two locations.

Based on the financing you described, it sounds like it's going to be owner occupied (by you) for the first few years, so I don't have a good framework to evaluate that as an investment since it's not, really, at least until you move out and rent it.

The horrible part is; you can pay your attorney $30,000, win a settlement of $50,000 and the court cannot force your contractor to pay you one penny.

These investments benefit not only the taxpayers making the like-kind exchanges, but also generate jobs and taxable revenue for unrelated businesses upstream and downstream from the exchange transaction, such as real estate brokers, title and property insurers, escrow / settlement agents, lenders, appraisers, surveyors, attorneys, inspectors, contractors, building supply vendors and more.