.- You mentioned this sale is tax free 121 exclusion, which is great, and seems like a solid start to your goal.- The townhouse you're moving into is currently a rental, but you plan to live there two years for the 121 exclusion.

You can find some 2 units under or around $250K but they have been sitting on the market for over 150 days which tells you its not a great deal if it were an investor woud have already purchased it 4 month ago.  

Someone with $10M in the bank in cash just needs to put a lot of money to work and time value and tax write off is more interesting to them than a hungry investor in their 20s that has never found a deal.Honestly, books are great, but they are about as "boiler plate" as you can get as I'm sure you're discovering.

The markets you mentioned in your initial post in this thread are great markets, but they're all heavy on appreciation and light on cash flow.

It was in great condition and she used a conventional loan without any challenges.

Great Location.

Great questions and things to consider!

They're a great resource for these situations!

The other info sounds great but I would verify the assumptions I mentioned because if they’re off, it throws everything else off.  

@Deirdre Lizio like any business, you will encounter customers that:1) Appreciate great service and are willing to pay for it2) Appreciate great service, but are price sensitive3) Only care about the lowest price, yet unrealistically expect great service4) Multiple variations of the above...Unfortunately, the majority of us default to #3:(