Full year of renting out before I 1031 a previous rental?

[Jack B.]

I lived in the house for 1.5 years, then rented it out for 3 years and lived in it again for about a year then rented out again but not a full year yet. Do I need to rent it out again for a full year before 1031 exchanging?

From what I understood there is no actual guideline as to how long it has to be rented to qualify for a 1031. My other rental that I did a 1031 with though was a 4  year long rental so there was no gray area at all. 

[Bill B.]

Yeah, ideal would have been to sell it tax free rather than turn it back in to a rental the second time. Now the best you can do is defer the taxes. 

@Dave Foster will be your expert here but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard as you have, there’s no hard and fast rule, it’s all based on intent. The fact that you could have sod tax free but turned in into a rental instead and now face taxes should work in your favor in the argument of intent.