How to fund debt for a 1031 if I don't have the DTI?

[Christopher Brown]

I am preparing to sell a condo that I've owned and rented out for the last 15 yrs in NYC. It has appreciated quite a bit, but the cash flow is just ok, and I think that I would like to deploy all the appreciated equity into some better cash flowing properties - probably SFH or MFR. The problem is that I make a pretty modest annual income between my wife and I, which won't be able to support the DTI on new debt for any new investment properties. (We make about $75k/yr. We are also in the midst of relocating to Winston-Salem, NC for a new job and buying a new home down there, which is where I would expect we will search for new rental properties.)

Rough numbers: $400k purchase price with quite a bit of depreciation for a tax basis around $200k.  Sale price around $1.4m.  Current debt is about $500k, and I'll have about $800k in equity proceeds (after brokerage commissions and ny transfer taxes) to roll into new properties.  

I'd obviously take a huge hit in taxes if I don't roll that debt into new properties. I've looked into going the commercial 1031 route (NNN, etc.) where we'd have better luck securing debt, but that market seems so compressed right now and I wouldn't get the cash flow I'll be able to get with residential rentals. DSTs seem similarly frothy. I don't want to 1031 into something without a great exit just to save the taxes.

Any creative ideas for how to take on the required debt when conventional lenders aren't going to fund me and it'll be two years or so before any new cash flow will qualify me to refinance?  Will portfolio lenders take me on?  Does finding an equity partner make the most sense?  Seems like too much money and too long a time for hard money/p2p lending?  I've got quite a bit of experience renovating and renting out both long and short term rentals, but with my new job I'm not quite sure how much I want to take on at the moment.  Appreciate any advice...