@Ivet Medrano I talk to mortgage brokers exclusively.

@Alex Jean Baptiste Bridgewater is in the USDA-eligible zone, as are many towns around it.The exclusions are generally anything closer to Boston than Brockton, Brockton itself, Attleboro, Taunton, Fall River, New Bedford and Plymouth.  

I started buying rentals most from the MLS (I am a licensed agent), then flipping exclusively, and started off market campaigns the end of last year to add to my deal flow.

Are the leads you get from these services shared by all the local agents, or at least they are exclusively yours (at least for a period of time)?

Once your tenant vacated the property, the property was taken out of service as a rental and held exclusively for sale.  

If their property is not a rental, then it would not be eligible for a 1031 exchange, but with the primary residence exclusion mentioned above they wouldn't likely need a 1031 and the sell transaction would be much simpler in that case.As for investing in RE ... if you want to and are willing to put in the time and effort to get good at it, then it can be a great way to go.

I would like to have cash flow AND organic appreciation if I can find it (they aren't mutually exclusive, are they?) 

Any expenses directly and exclusively for the rental portion of the property can be deducted in full against rental income on Schedule E. 

I personally live in houston tx now but invest almost exclusively in LA ...  

Thank you for the idea of creating an LLC exclusively for this property and then selling the entire thing at closing.