Can you House hack and 1031?

Question

You have 45 days to identify your property on a 1031. It must be an investment property. If you are using the house hacking method, you are in a primary residence but it is also an investment property. Is this a feasible method?

Dave Foster · Answer

@Chan Reagan,  If your accountant is able to separate out the primary residence portion from the investment portion.  And if they are able to treat it accordingly on your tax return then yes you can purchase "split use property".  These are properties that are used for both primary residence and investment.  The most common example of this would be the duplex.  You live in half and use half for investment.  So you can 1031 into the investment portion.  Other common examples would be the family farm, the self storage with caretakers cottage, Or even a vacation rental with some personal use.

The key is that your 1031 dollars must be spent on the investment portion of the split use property.  If you sell an investment property for $200K then you must purchase replacement investment property worth at least $200K in order to defer all tax.  If you wanted to buy a duplex for $400K then you could allocate 50% of that to investment and the 1031.  And you could move into the other 50%

Christopher Phillips · Answer

@Chan Reagan

Welcome to BP...

No. 1031 cannot be used for personal property.