I'd assume that someone like you doesn't have people offering you a million dollars very often to start a business. 

Only four of the units are being rented out, four of the unoccupied units need to be completely refurbished and the owner doesn't have a P&L.

If the 1031 doesn’t look promising in our case, what are some other options?

No money down doesn't really exist.There some exceptions.

Hey all,I want to share with you a problem I encountered and a solution I came up with.I am using the MLS as one of the sources of my deals searching.While the MLS is great, it doesn't offer me as an investor any filtering options, or actually any other 'advanced' option rather than viewing the listings.So, in the past few weeks I've been working hard on a solution for my problem and I am happy to share that I have a first working test version! 

I mentioned signing a month-to-month lease after closing but the seller doesn't want to spend any more money, since we're already buying the property up for about 130k below its market value.

But that doesn’t mean the info is outdated.

If the property doesn't match that, then you move to the next prospect.

If you purchase a property with a VA loan, but it doesn't cost as much as the maximum eligibility price in that area, than you can borrow again at a later time on another property up to that maximum.......another, If you move after the one year and want to apply for a new VA loan, you can refinance to a traditional loan on your first property and you free up the entire VA loan eligibility. 

As far as pulling equity it doesn't seem like you would have enough to do a full down payment on the 2nd since you would have to purchase it with an investment loan at 20+%.