I'm happy to help you in whatever way I can in exchange (I've got marketing, coaching and writing in my background.) 

I required the pet deposit and security deposit up front in certified funds and rent in exchange for keys (again in certified funds for the first month as that is always the payment that is most likely to bounce) on the first day of the lease.

@Pete Shelton I could be wrong, but I don't believe you're allowed to live in the property you "exchange".. as long it's a "like kind" property you should be good..

I will like to do a 1031 Exchange.

It is just that I learned that consideration is a bargained for exchange.

So it might be a good time to cash in move to another property you have really good equity in live there for 2 years cash out tax free.. now you have all this cash and no tax hit at all.. and if you want to then build up a rental portfolio or what have you .. no worry about exchanges or going into massive debt to do it.

The tenant could claim they had an agreement with landlord selling they property that they get to keep it in exchange for not doing repairs to the property or they could say they bought it off of the landlord or they purchased it elsewhere.If you don't have the documents then I don't see you winning this one and wasting a lot of time and money.

Here's what it says on the IRS's website involving disqualified persons:Prohibited transactions in a qualified planProhibited transactions generally include the following transactions: A disqualified person’s transfer of plan income or assets to, or use of them by or for his or her benefit A fiduciary’s act by which he or she deals with plan income or assets in his or her own interest A fiduciary’s receipt of consideration for his or her own account in a transaction that involves plan income or assets from any party dealing with the plan Any of the following acts between the plan and a disqualified person: Selling, exchanging, or leasing property Lending money or extending credit Furnishing goods, services or facilitiesExempt transactionsThe law exempts some transactions from being prohibited transactions.

I wanted to see what you guys thought of it. 1) Fix up the old house (5k-10k rehab), then refinance it and deal with the fact that I might not make much cashflow on it in exchange for the 40k-50k that I'll be able to reinvest.

Maybe you even exchange it for a larger property of $5M and walk away with $5M this time, now you're up to $8,000,000.