First 1031 Excahnge and things I did not know.

I'm selling my 2 family in Cambridge MA (https://www.zillow.com/homedet...) and using a 1031 to upsize my # of doors in my portfolio into New Hampshire.  This is the first time I'm doing a 1031X and I have several misconceptions and learned some cool things so I imagine other here would appreciate the following summary.   

1.    I thought it was only the GAINS that went into the calculations for the 1031.  Not so, it is the actual selling price less closing costs.

2.    I thought you have 6 months to buy new property(s).  While true, you need to submit a list of properties within 45 days of closing and cant change them AND close on some or all of them within 180 days AND use all the cash proceeds.

3.   You can also do a partial 1031? You can for example put some of the process of the sale into the 1031 and the rest is called the "Boot".  You pay the tax on the boot in that tax year of the sale.

4.  If your 1031 fails, all the gains become a taxable event.  Should the 1031's 180 days carry you into the next tax year, you defer the tax into the following year.

So....my budget for new properties just increase by 33% and I need to start identifying properties now so I'm ready for when I close in MA.  I will be exploring some create offer writing as well to provide some buffer and protections.  I will share them once fully formulated.  Like with anything else, do your homework in ADVANCE of NEED.

Tried to edit my title type-o but BP doesn't seem to allow that....