1031 Exchange to a fix and hold?

[Jeff White]

Hi All,

I bought a single family house investment property in Murfreesburo, Tennessee in 2006 after I graduated college with 100% financing and no money down.  Pretty sweet deal considering the lack of experience I had at the time and money.  

Anyways, fortunately, I've keep it all these years as an investment property, and I'm looking to 1031 exchange out of it today since the market is fairly good in Murfreesboro.  Currently, I owe about 125M on it, and I believe I could sell it for ~175M, so not crazy gains, but at least a decent chunk that i could invest elsewhere and make a better return.  Also, my tenants in there have a lease till 10/31/17.  I have a couple of questions:

1) Does the total dollar amount of the "like-kind" property or properties have to be equal to or greater than what I sell the Tennessee property for?  For example, if I found two Kansas City single family houses that added up were greater than how much I sold my Tennessee place for, does that work?

2) Can I use that equity to buy a wholesale property with a hard money loan, fix up, refinance into a long-term loan, and hold as an investment property in Denver (my current city)?  I'm currently in the process of looking for a fix and flip, but from what I've read here, is that you can't fix and flip with a 1031 property, but if I fix and hold as a rental, would that suffice?  

3) And finally, if I just wanted to cash out and wanted to know how much I could get post all taxes, what would that amount be or is there a good calculator online to estimate?  I like to compare and contrast things.

All this is great information. 

Thanks for the help!