@Julie Gates My wife has been a Realtor since 2005, and she was recognized as being the 33rd most productive Realtor out of 9,025 in NE Florida.

Which you might not recognize until you've seen a few.

I recognize before I do such a transaction, even with the benefit of knowledge from this forum, I need to use a lawyer.

An LLC is NOT recognized as an entity by the IRS, because LLC's are state level entities. 

We have a crystal clear conversation about this at the lease signing.To show I am not a grinch - part of my agreement with folks is that every 13th month I discount their rent by 10% to recognize their on-time payments.

This may not be possible if 100% of the gain was recognized in Year 1.

I have looked into a serries LLC  but not all states recognize  it for example when I called CT gov. registration they told me I would have to register each individual LLC under the mother-ship LLC which makes this super expensive, a few other states were like this as well so, its hard to register as a series because there all registered under one EIN number.

You will know the right tenants right away because they will recognize their fortunate circumstances and will appreciate it.

Props to you for recognizing where your experience level is and what fits your current investment mindset.

the gain recognized from the exemption of sec. 121 is tax free.