I’ve been a commercial mortgage broker and lender on nearly half a billion dollars worth of deals so feel free to ask any specific questions and I’d be happy to go into greater detail.

@Kevin Stringari I saw on your website you were advertising specials half off security etc or half month rent o move in.

Any portfolio lenders comfortable lending at 70% with half term IO, 25-30 amortization, and limited P&I/tax/insurance/replacement reserves would be right in their sweet spot. 

Glad you can fill half the units yourself.

By the way, we typically do not get all of our investment extracted unless we got an assist with market appreciation (which we have gotten multiple times, about half of our RE has had all of our investment extracted).  

I've got a flexible schedule and am no stranger to hard labor. the second half of what you're suggesting with a partner for permits and that side of things is the weak link in all of this for me.

My desire to be financially free began nearly a year and a half ago while working Dave Ramsey's baby steps program, and my increased interest in  building wealth was sparked a year ago after listening to hours of the BiggerPockets podcasts and then reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

More than cut in half the amount of calls we got than before. 

Probably more than half of the exchanges done each year are from or into SF rentals.  1031 allows you to sell any type of property that has been used for investment and you can replace it with any other kind of investment real estate like @Jeff Copeland said.

We saved monthly for over a year and in the fall of 2018 we purchased a half acre of land with a 1990s model single wide house trailer on it for $15,000 from a local real estate investor who had abandoned the project after letting it sit on the MLS for a year at 40k and needed money for another project.