Looking for advise—thinking of selling my home for a 4 plex

[Long Nguyen]

Hi guys,

Im looking for advise. Im thinking of selling my single family home, which i purchased last year, for a 4 plex. The house was built brandnew last year in a new development. It has 5 rooms; 2 of the rooms are in the mother in law guest suite with its own private entry. Im single with no kids so I rent out all the rooms (4 x $700 for a total of $2800 per month) and i stay in the master room. The mortgage is $3000 per month so im paying very little here, almost living there for free. However, my passion is in multifamily homes so my real estate agent advised me to sell it and get a 4 plex. Id love to keep my current home and buy a 4 plex on top of it but i dont have the capital right now to do that. So Should i sell it? Is this a wise decision? I really dont want to sell as I love the house and the neighborhood. If i sell it i will have to end up living in one of my 4 plexes and rent out the other 3 units.

Also, my real estate agent said I dont qualify for a 1031 exchange because this is a owner occupied house im selling not a rental. However, he said i dont need to do a 1031 exchange cause I dont need to pay taxes because its not a rental. Is this true?

Please advise guys. Im pretty new to this real estate investing game. Thank you in advance for the help

[Dave Foster]

@Long Nguyen, You may or may not be able to do a 1031 exchange depending on how you've accounted for those rentors.  However, your realtor is right that you would be better off selling and using the primary residence exclusion so your sale could be tax free.  But you have to have lived in the property for two out of the 5 years prior to selling it.  So it sounds like you need to live in that property for another year before you can take the 121 exclusion.  But if you have the time and patience that would be a great way to go.