I paid him several thousands of $ - well above the $600 tax threshold.

The initial returns are lower on paper in better locations (lower cap rate, less initial cashflow according to the magic spreadsheet), but the overall returns in reality are much better including all the different ways people make money in real estate (gained equity through natural and forced appreciation, principle pay-down, increasing rents= higher cash flow when looking at the big picture if you buy and hold, depreciation tax benefits, plus way less of the big profit killers like turnover, non-paying tenants, property damage and theft, dealing with bad contractors because good ones don’t choose to work in bad areas either, etc.). 

I'm also pretty sure that 2 of the tenants are getting government assistance and I think they are longer term tenants.After taxes, insurance and with the owner paying for heat and water the owner claims it is netting $20,000 per year.

Just curious what others would do in this situation.

Even with $0 down I may be able to cover the mortgage with BAH from the military but then I'm concerned about all the other costs (CAPEX, PM costs, regular maintenance, taxes, etc.).

And are there additional taxes that Arlington County levies on AirBNB operators? 

BTW, you get what you pay for - the cheaper ones are robotic/scripted while the good ones (more expensive) have presence, personality and situational awareness -  which helps with appointment setting. 

Let's be honest, in most situations like this, is the buyer Agent really providing all that much value that the buyer would not get if they just wrote the offer through your wife?

If not the swap, the non-profit might instead offer as much as 1.25x the value in cash, in which case I might consider selling or could just keep it for now (taxes are virtually zero).Does anyone have insight or suggestions on commercial real estate that could help inform this decision?

Why MIS is so unpopular method to defer tax??