Owning 12 properties yourself is very different from managing 12 properties for third parties.Key distinction:Own or control the property = principalRepresent someone else for a fee = broker activityIndiana Real Estate Commission rules are what matter here, and they can be strict on what constitutes “acting as a broker.”If you are serious about scaling this strategy, I would:Structure it so you always have equitable interestAvoid marketing yourself as placing tenants for othersConfirm with a local real estate attorney, not old forum postsOne wrong structure can turn a strategy into an unlicensed brokerage issue fast.Clean structure solves most of this.

Since A is closing first, you’ll want to make sure the QI and lenders are aligned so funds are allocated intentionally and you don’t accidentally strand exchange cash or create boot just because of timing.At this stage, the most important conversations are actually with:Your QI, to map proceeds and timing cleanlyYour CPA, to confirm debt replacement and boot exposure under your exact numbersStructurally, there’s no single “right” answer here but there are a few wrong ones if timing or debt replacement is mishandled.

Then, your assumption about Hard Money is wrong. 

I keep communication open and friendly with my current tenants to make sure that if something goes wrong, they tell me! 

I see so many people fail because the data is wrong or they underwrite a deal using incorrect ARV, Proposed rents, Cost of Reno/Construction or market analysis.  

So if you were getting into this thinking, "its better to own than rent, I'll always just own" that is the wrong mind set. 

That’s not automatically wrong, but it’s not trivial either.Selling with ~$130k–$160k of equity gives you flexibility, but a 1031 only makes sense if the replacement deal is clearly better on a risk-adjusted basis, not just “same cash flow, bigger property.”Bigger properties often trade some simplicity for scale.

The numbers that don't work, wrong numbers have to be removed.

I’ve seen so many examples where it’s just flat out wrong, about super obvious stuff.

What happened and went wrong?