My wife and I sold our condo at the hight of the market, and we are currently staying with family.

Are you looking for long-term wealth accumulation, passive income streams, or short-term profits?

We are looking for asset protection and the plan is to buy more properties moving forward. 

Our RE lawyer no longer operates his private practice and we are looking for some recommendations in the Phx/Scottsdale area.

Technically on paper I do not own this property, however we are putting the property into a land trust that we will both own together 50/50.In speaking with a couple attorneys, I am getting mixed answers.

We are using them for bookkeeping, and our community is using them for various other tasksGino

In short.....whatever you avoid in paying taxes in a 1031.....you pay when you sell the replacement property....plus whatever depreciation recapture/cap gains apply to the replacement property. 

Smart buyers understand the value of a Buyer's agent and it certainly is not just to open doors.  95% of my clients are out of state investors purchasing in a market that they do not know nor live in, they count on me to walk the property, access repairs, provide comps and short term rental numbers, arrange and be present for inspections, as well as my ability to assist them getting their short term rental set up for them long distance.  

In short, this market has a huge barrier of entry and it is capital or very strong borrowing power and usually both.There are lenders who will lend to a no exp investor, but not some 500k Long Island property that needs 200k in work and will resell for 1.2 Million. 

Typical deals like that had short-term, variable rate 3-year bridge loans.