Ideas to Handle a wide buyer Closing date spread on a 1031 sale

[Buddy Holmes]

This is my second 1031 exchange, however this one is unique.

I have a contract to sell a property to a City and I want to enter into a 1031 sale.

Since my buyer is a city/town with a town counsel and funding options that also include a joint funding with the county, my sales contract has a wide range of closing date: from now until the end of September. I am told that with a fiscal year starting July 1 that the real spread is 1 July to 30 September. My plan is to exchange this property for one SFR cash purchase and the rest in DST investments. The problem as you might image, is that it is hard to find a SFR to put under contract until I know the closing date on my first property sale.

I would appreciate any thoughts in how to work earlier on finding and contracting on the SFR replacement property.