1031 Exchange Individual Condos for an Apartment Complex

[Aly W.]

My husband and I are looking for a small apartment complex in central Florida and would sell/exchange 2 condos in Ft. Lauderdale for the down payment. We're in the early stages, with nothing identified yet, but I just want to be sure of the sequence of events. We've done a 1031 Exchange before, one condo for another, and it was down to the wire with the timing.

Should we identify and get under contract with an LOI for the apartment, and then sell the condos? I know if we sell the condos first, we only have 45 days to identify the replacement property.

With a seller's market, we don't anticipate too much difficulty selling the condos, so we don't want to do that first and then run out of time to identify the replacement. And selling 2 at the same time, doesn't mean they'll actually close at the same time. Several moving parts.

Thanks for any suggestions!