I'm excited to get involved in the Bigger Pockets community, I've been reading through the articles and forums over the past few weeks, there's some great information and resources here!

Who is involved in the 1031 Exchange?

Has anyone heard of them or been involved?

The work involved in finding the deal is the same and the returns is higher.Regarding your question, instead of going for average cap rates, I would buy a property if it makes sense financially in a location with solid job growth.

We also model the profitability and hold period of each property based solely on cashflow - we assume no appreciation in value (which, when you consider inflation, actually works out to depreciation) and that the property will be disposed at the same price (or perhaps 5% less) than its capital cost.While this approach seems to be far too conservative in the eyes of other local investors, I would rather treat any gain on disposition as a windfall and retain the ability to profitably sell properties below future FMV if we need to dispose at an in-opportune time in the cycle.

haha kind of like we do with sending the mailers.I'm just trying to get a little help, the more eyes I get on the post the better chance I get of someone helping me. :-)

If so, what's their involvement?

Generally the short sale lender wouldn't be involved with this.

Heck, if you do not mind me installing a keyless entry, I would build a web site for the property, pay for listing and handle all bookings and automatically email you every booking agreement as well as give you access to a web based system so you can see the details of all the costs involved in your property for 10% :)!

Likely up to the first 4 mortgages as long as you can find a lender willing to cash-out refi investment property, qualify for it and adjust your numbers to include the fees involved.