On the other hand if you bought 2 it is less likely they would both be duds thereby reducing your overall risk.

What tactics have you used to reduce water consumption by the tenants.

My broker is 2+ hours away and handling massive FL growth with the help of his admin team, but my mentor is close. 

If so, how is that facilitated, are there service providers who handle it, and what are the approximate costs?

If I am reading it correctly this would reduce taxable income significantly but still not to the effect of a step up basis in an inheritance scenario.     

He can initiate a 1031 exchange by selling his property to you, having the exchange documented on the settlement statements and having a qualified intermediary involved to handle the process. 

In the future I plan to reduce this once the mortgage paid off.

If you want to try working with a PM again, we do have an option for owners to take care of maintenance, but we still list/screen/lease the property, man the phones 24/7, collect the rent, handle the accounting, do routine inspections of the property, etc.

We investigate and determine insulation is inadequate in the corner of the room and tell them we'll reduce rent to open the wall and re-insulate (no mold present).

One girl was amazing, she would handle any task I need.