Or is it better to capture all the rental income while continuing to pay my current rent at $500/month?

I’ll keep you updated as I continue my search but good luck!!

When you do a 1031 exchange, the next property you buy continues down the same depreciating term. 

If rents rise over the next few years, that could help cover some of the higher payments if interest rates continue to climb.

If that continues then I'm definitely out ( and we will see).

I don't know how to make this happen but the numbers work well, so I'm looking for creative advice/equity partners/private money/hard money  for how to make this happen, and then when my business sells I can pay back the loan and find financing at that point to continue the rehab.

People seem to buy mainly for appreciation, but I'm not sold appreciation will continue to rise the way it has the past 5 - 6 years, so feel like CF is the safer investing avenue for me. 

Let's stay connected and continue to learn from one another. 

I don't think the fact that prices have gone up 5 years in a row is a good clean indicator that they will continue to do so, if it cashflows today and I can hold it for 20 years inflation should do most of the heavy lifting for me. 

I also advised to continue to contact IHA and document all of the communications if there are any.