Selling previous rental property - need help with decision

[Jim Vinh]

I have a SFH that I have rented out for 9 years. There is quite a bit of capital gain on it (about 500K). I am thinking about selling it now that I am about to retire (and the market is high). If I make my this rental property my primary residence in the next 2 years before selling it, is it as simple as:

1) owning the property for 5 years 

2) live there for 2 years,

then when we sell, the capital gain could be reduced by the $500K (primary residence), or is it more complicate than that? 

I understand the recapture tax will need to be paid in either cases.

If I can get the $500K capital gain exclusion, it may be worth it for me to move there and not sell it now. My advanced thanks to all comments/replies