This is a question for experts like @Dave Foster , I have someone interested in trading a property I have for another property straight across.  Mine is a nicer property but much smaller.  I suspect the difference in value would be as much as $40K,  in my favor, but if fixed up it's value would climb rapidly.  I believe I can do a straight trade and not trigger any taxable event, but then do I need to hold the property I just got, for another 1 year period before I can sell it and do a 1031 for cash?

@Jerry W. , It is possible to swap properties and perform basically a diy 1031.  If you and the other party agree on equal valuation it becomes an issue for your accountant to simply transfer the schedules to the new property.  Your real question is how long do you have to hold that new property before selling and doing another 1031.

No statutory answer on that one.  Your intent in acquiring that new property has to be to hold for productive investment use.  I think most folks would feel comfortable at anything more than a year.  But there could always be unique reasons why a hold period of less than (or more than) a year would be appropriate.

You just want to make sure your obvious intent isn't to acquire this property simply to fix up and sell.  Even though it's the result of a 1031 that' makes it just a fix n flip.  And you'd actually lose your long term capital gains from the old property.

Thanks @Dave Foster , unfortunately I can only vote for your post once.  Oddly enough what I want to do is sell and 1031 the second property as well, but I guessed the safe one year period would be best to follow.  I was looking at doing a 1031 on the property I have now, but I think the second one would sell for more with a little work.  I have never done a 1031 before and here I am wanting to a series of them.

@Jerry W.

Obviously, you could have asked Dave Foster directly instead of posting publicly, so let me ask you what you are looking to do so I can learn.

So, you want to sell Property A and buy Property B, as a 1031.  Then, outright sell Property B in the near future (apparently less than 1 year).

Or, from your second post you just want to 1031 your way from A to B to C?

If the second is true, then from my understanding it appears you want to 1031 a couple of flips, right?  Of course, flips are considered trading inventory as opposed to investment assets so the 1031 wouldn't apply.

Am I following so far what's going on?

Thanks for your patience in advance.

@David M. , the point of asking in public is to let others also learn from my question. What I was hoping is that the actual trade of properties would not require a 1 year wait in order do another 1031. I have a property I am considering a 1031 on, but the offer to trade could increase what I might get for the 1031, unfortunately it resets the clock back to zero and start over. I am not looking at flipping. There is a high dollar property that I want to buy and hold. It would be nice to sell an existing property and use it for the down payment, but I had another offer come up at the same time.

@Jerry W. , this is an interesting situation. Please keep us informed on how this plays out.  And thanks for going public with the question.