And the excuse of an assumption of a persons pre-existing knowledge of such is an oxymoron to your stated premise of educating people on something they don't know or are not aware of.

Sitting on one house that's paid off, worth about $80k, and another one that is worth about $210k, with only $46k owed.

Nevertheless, with the right circumstances it is absolutely a vehicle one could use to scale without too much risk - for example if a property was a rental and paid off but had a lot of equity, it could make sense to do the refi.Ultimately every situation is different, but it is definitely a strategy that works for scaling.

Realtor doesn't get paid until you get paid..

She was disappointed but we exited on good terms (and someone paid what she wanted). 

Since you’re carrying part of the loan, this is basically an installment sale, which means you can recognize the gain over time as you get paid instead of all at once and that can really help smooth out your tax hit.With a 1031 Exchange, there is no need for an installment sale for tax reasons, as you are deferring the gain anyway.

I was speaking at an IMN Note Conference a few years ago and a "guru" had taken several of his paid "students" to the conference.

You basically own a commodity and commodity means low prices and low investment returns.After years of investing in this type of locations, I've found that, with few exceptions, the way to make money with this kind of condos is to buy as early as possible at the lowest possible prices and then flip when the condo is delivered to those who don't want to take the risk of pre-construction before the other owners realize they won't make the promised rental income and might want to sell as well.In the spirit of trying to be helpful and positive, here's what I'd do if I was in your position and didn't want to sell:1.

I paid cash.

Paid for by REI both money and time.2.