What I have found in the smaller ones, is they are backed by a larger trust company and act as an intermediary.

Also, since your PM is acting as an intermediary, get a second opinion Broker Price Opinion from another real estate company.

In order to remain as a tax-exempted transaction, you must state your intent to do a 1031 Exchange before any property (either relinquished or replacement) involved has transacted, and the transactions (both buy and sell) must be handled by a Qualified Intermediary (QI).

Now you can get the fear of failure part out of your head, since your are now a card-carrying member the real estate investor community.I hope to read more (frequent) posts from you on BP and expect to hear about the challenges you encounter in your deal flow.As for wholesaling, you can be an intermediary in any market you choose to work in.

@Chris Miller, A 1031 requires the use of an unrelated 3rd party called the qualified intermediary. 

We are planning on talking with an intermediary next week but I'd love to pick your brain.

@remingtonlyman even a BiggerPockets contributor got scammed by a 1031 intermediary with good reputation and he did a video on it. ( His name starts with Chris) When choosing just has to make sure they carry good insurance in case something goes wrong.

The mechanism is that you start a 1031 exchange with the sale (your intermediary must be in place prior to the sale). 

If the $8,000 is subject to 15% capital gains tax rate, you are looking at about a $1,200 tax bill.1031 intermediaries normally charge between $750 and $1,000 to facilitate the transaction.Then you are looking at the additional cost of your tax return to file the 1031 forms.The cost of compliance would be more than the deferred gain on the sale.As @Michael Plaks mentioned, you are likely better off just reporting the sale without deferring it.

@Leon Lee, You can do a substitution of 1031 intermediaries in the middle of an exchange.