You can put up to $30k/year (in the defined benefit plan's case) tax-deferred into them, reducing your taxable income for the current year.  

My advice would be to put yourself around people who are doing what you want to do and lead by offering value (which you've already suggested you would work for free).

You can put less money down and have a lower interest rate. 

In the past there were more options to get creative with seller financing etc to put down less than that, but now the primary lender in general won't allow this as they want to assure you have sufficient skin in the game.

Putting together a team out of state is hard enough as it is, but learning REI and building a team from a distance at the same time could be a recipe for disaster.

try facebook marketplace, apartments.comreview all the places your agent is putting them in as they may not be as in a rush as you are to list it. i like being in control so i post on those platforms and find my tenants. hope this helps

I could put 4 million into stocks and live like a King while growing my net worth truly passively. 

A lot of houses have no windows on the South side and that is for a reason.You didn't say where you live but unless it's the far north, I would pick house #1. 200 extra SF is nice too.....If there is not enough sunlight down the road and it bothers you, you can always add a window on the front, or even easier, put in a Solatube in a central location.

You've got your answer above, but you COULD do an exchange if you put the property in to service and held it for a period of time. 

You’re better off just putting the $500k in a cd and getting paid $2k/mo in interest and spending $100 of that on insurance.