Condo-ize apartment building to get under $500k in gain-Biden

[James Hock]

It's my understanding that Biden's proposed changes regarding 1031 exchanges would not apply to real estate transactions where there is less than $500k of gain.

My partner and I own a 10-plex apartment building next door to an 8-plex condo building, where we own all 8 of the units.

We rent all of the units in both buildings as STRs and have been doing so for 10 years in the case of the condo building, and 5 years in the case of the 10-plex.

If we sold the apartment building, the gain would be ~$1.2 million, subjecting $700k to capital gains tax under Biden's plan

If we sold all 8 condos to an investor, the total gain would be ~$1.4 million, but split among the 8 condos, it'd be a gain of $175k/unit, so presumably nothing subject to capital gains, and we could possibly roll all of the proceeds over into a 1031.

Anyway, that got me thinking that if we converted our 10-plex into condos, if/when we sold the building, we could eliminate capital gains tax if Biden's change goes through.

We also own another two other 8-plex apartment buildings, and two 4-plexes, where we are in the same situation.

A google search turned up https://liberty1031.com/conver..., where a lady converted an apartment building to condos, then sold them to multiple individuals, and was deemed a dealer rather than an investor, and so was ineligible for a 1031 exchange.

If we did condo-ize the apartment buildings, would we need to continue renting them as STR for any period of time before we sold to show that we are still an investor rather than a dealer?

We had planned on owning these until we kick, but are getting tired of owning them and running our STR business, and are considering selling and investing in a DST.

Thanks for any help!