Yes, your cash flow will be affected if you hire someone to help, but if it allows you to stay in the game another 5-10 years or indefinitely you will reap the benefits of mortgage pay down and appreciation.

However, there are plenty of ways you can utilize the 1031 exchange and indefinitely defer all of the tax and depreciation recapture when scaling up or down your RE portfolio.

Which is happening as we speak.If you hold and rent it for 2-3 more years, you can still do a 1031 exchange in the future and indefinitely defer all of the tax.

I've heard online that even if it is triggered you could transfer the ownership back to the seller and do lease options indefinitely until the property is paid off.

You get that regardless.Using a 1031 exchange allows you to indefinitely defer paying the tax on the gain attributable to the other side that was used for investment. 

That will work indefinitely, provided there isn't some black swan event where reservations come to a screeching halt. 

Thanks for reading this and giving your input.I bought 3Br/ 3.5 Ba fully updated/ renewed/ EVERYTHING replaced 2000+ sq' TH (really 3 story condo). It's quite nice, has 1 car (detached) garage, etc, etc,  etc. HOWEVER...

You could potentially kick the tax can down the road indefinitely if you keep doing exchanges or a step-up in basis later.Just keep in mind that there are deadlines that must be met and other requirements.

I guess I'm missing something here...it seems like I'm stuck putting money into this system indefinitely.

So it does qualify for 1031 treatment, And when the DST is sold, you still have the ability to 1031 back into investment property(or into another DST) and continue to defer the tax indefinitely.