Deadlines with teeth
The 1031 rulebook: 45 days, 180 days, and the fine print
The IRS gives you exactly two deadlines and zero extensions. Here’s the whole timeline on one page, plus the identification rules, the qualified intermediary, and the reverse exchange — explained like a friend, enforced like a stopwatch.
The clock, start to finish
Before Day 0
Line up your intermediary
Before your sale closes — not after — a qualified intermediary (QI) is engaged and exchange language goes into the contract. Touch the proceeds yourself, even for a minute, and the exchange is dead on arrival.
Day 0
Your sale closes
The relinquished property closes and the QI takes custody of every dollar. Both clocks start tonight, and they run on calendar days — weekends, holidays, and hurricane season included.
Day 45
Identification deadline
By midnight you deliver a signed, written list of replacement candidates to your QI. Most investors name up to three properties (the three-property rule); name more and the 200% rule caps their combined value at twice what you sold.
Day 46–179
The closing window
Inspections, financing, and negotiation — but only on properties from your list. You can’t swap in a new candidate after Day 45, which is why smart identification lists include a backup or two.
Day 180
Close or pay
You must take title to your replacement property by Day 180 (or your tax-filing deadline, if sooner — file an extension if you close late in the year). Miss it and the deferral evaporates.
The identification rules, decoded
The 45-day list has three flavors. The three-property rule: identify up to three candidates, any value, and buy any of them. The 200% rule: identify more than three, as long as their combined value doesn’t exceed 200% of what you sold. The 95% rule: blow past both limits and you must actually acquire 95% of the value you identified — which is why almost nobody uses it on purpose.
In our markets, the three-property rule with one realistic backup is the workhorse. Inventory moves fast in the corridor and on the harbor; a well-built list on Day 30 beats a perfect list on Day 44.
Who exactly is this “qualified intermediary”?
A QI is the independent company that holds your sale proceeds, papers the exchange, and wires funds to your replacement closing. “Qualified” mostly means independent: not you, not your agent, not your attorney or CPA from the last two years, and definitely not your cousin.
Global works with established Florida intermediaries on exchanges every season, and we’re glad to introduce you — early, ideally before you even list, when all your options are still open.
The rules people trip over
Same taxpayer, both sides: the name on the old deed must take title to the new one. Equal or up: buy at least as much as you sold and reinvest all the cash, or the difference is taxable “boot.” Debt counts: if you carried a $300k mortgage, the replacement side needs equal debt or fresh cash to match it. And the 5-year rule: convert an exchanged rental into your home and you’ll need five years of ownership before any Section 121 exclusion can apply to it.
Running it in reverse
Found the perfect Punta Gorda canal home before your Orlando villa has sold? A reverse 1031 exchange lets an exchange accommodation titleholder buy and “park” the new property for up to 180 days while you sell the old one. It costs more and requires real coordination — but in a market where the right waterfront listing lasts a weekend, it’s the difference between exchanging and watching.
Questions people ask
The honest FAQ
Two deadlines run from the day your sale closes: 45 calendar days to identify replacement property in writing, and 180 calendar days total to close on it. Both run concurrently and neither can be extended — except by federally declared disaster relief.
You may identify up to three replacement properties of any value and close on any of them. It’s the simplest identification method and the one most Florida investors use, usually with one realistic backup on the list.
If you want to identify more than three properties, you can — but their combined value can’t exceed 200% of the value of the property you sold. It suits investors splitting one large sale into several smaller rentals.
If you exchange into a property and later convert it into your primary residence, you must own it at least five years before selling it with any Section 121 home-sale exclusion — and the exclusion gets prorated for the years it wasn’t your home.
It’s buying the replacement property first: an exchange accommodation titleholder holds the new property while you sell the old one, following the same 45/180 rhythm in mirror image. Costs more, moves faster, saves deals in tight inventory.
Practically, no. The only routine exception is IRS disaster relief — which Floridians do occasionally see after major hurricanes — but you should plan as if Day 45 is carved in stone, because it is.
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