1031 options- DST's- yay or neigh?

[Nicole Sternad]

We are about to sell a property with a net of approx 1M. I'd love to hear more experienced investor's thoughts on diversifying and reinvesting this. Background: My husband is very close to retirement (maybe 2-3 yrs?) We have 3 rentals (commercial, shop & SFH), maxed 401K, FI etc... Ideally we would like to use this to generate more income for retirement. The local market is super high (MT) and low inventory. I am younger and content to still work or jump in to something new as self employed, so I would consider businesses, passive investments, or more RE. I've just jumped in to REI this past year, so I'm a newbie and we weren't expecting to sell this property for at least another 5 years, but here we are... I have a meeting scheduled w/ a Financial Planner but I'd love to learn from this community as well.

I've briefly looked in to DST's because it would buy us some time to make decisions and let the market soften, but I'm not well educated (yet) on DST's and I don't love the returns. It just feels like an "easy button." What are your thoughts on DST's?

Can we split the profit for part 1031 and use a portion for other investments? (yes we'd have to pay capital gains if it's not RE) Should we consider a business? Any wisdom for me? Thanks so much!