The mechanism of a 1031 exchange is that you assign your contract rights to sell the old property and to purchase the new property to your intermediary.  

You are not fully understanding the mechanics at work.  

I currently have USAA insurance (whom I like very much) and they insure my primary residence, autos, umbrella, and 12 rentals (in 4 different states).  

By day I'm a mechanical engineer, but my real passion lies in real estate.  

We don't want to clutter up your inbox.However, if you do, in fact, want to receive them so frequently, we can make a change to your account and you won't get auto-switched to weekly.I've made that change to your account.

I use an insurance company that lets me pay by the month and they auto debit my cc.

I waffled on that for a while and went with a 3 month, auto renew m/m - - here's why:m/m is almost Motel 6, easily becomes constant relocations and imo sends the signal, this is a safe house until your life gets better. 

Between the mold, structural consequences and ruined mechanicals, that house is probably worth more scraped than rebuilt.

I'm a mechanical engineer and I manage large commercial and institutional projects.

A bottom 10% mechanic is just going to break your car anyways, so you'd be better off trying to "fix it" (eg, break it) yourself because at least then you won't have a bill for the labor it took to break it!