@Ned Carey is your Baltimore area expert.  

Furthermore, I recommend scheduling a home inspection by a certified specialist who can identify any underlying issues that may not be obvious or known by the seller.

I am not an expert by any means, but what I have read/heard, is that you can't close on residential properties using an LLC but can transfer the asset afterwards.

I don't have some mega portfolio of sec8 making me the expert here but I wanted to mention this for one reason: I understand my time is more valuable and honestly, my lack of knowledge is a liability in this arena.

I would love to see first-hand how such experts build assets!

CPAs are licensed professionals who are highly regulated and are experts in tax filing, not necessarily 1031 exchanges, which is more of a real estate attorney function.

You don't have to use just one realtor, use local experts, not someone you like so you use them for every market you want to invest in. 

But I'm not licensed expert! 

Many experts are now pushing for limits on expensive suburban sprawl and instead are advocating for zoning changes to allow denser housing - which should be more affordable.

For my money I'd likely be looking to fund 3-5 different syndications with syndicators that I suspect do a fantastic job and are subject-matter experts.