Rookie question on keeping proceeds from sale liquid

[Julia Taylor]

My husband and I sold our investment property and are about to close on selling our primary residence. We have not identified a new primary or investment property to purchase yet. We will have about $1.3M we want to keep liquid so we are ready to purchase when we find the right properties. What is the safest way to store the money and keep it liquid? We have some high-yield savings accounts at an online bank, as well accounts at our local bank where the interest rates are pathetic. I'm not sure I fully understand what FDIC insurance covers, but want to make sure our money is protected from any fraud or cyber incidents while we shop for another house. I may be overthinking this - I've just never had this much cash on hand and it makes me a little nervous!

[Julia Taylor]

Thanks - the gains from the investment property sale were relatively small and we weren't ready to buy another one with a 1031 exchange. We did carefully weigh our options and we determined this was the best one, despite knowing that we'd have to pay a small amount of capital gains tax. My understanding is that the 1031 just defers taxes owed, it doesn't eliminate them. The 45-day window has now closed and we are not interested in trying to redo the sale (CPA said it is very complex and expensive). I was just looking for advice on how to store the money, not looking for advice on 1031s.

@Joe Homs what are the big 3 banks? The only big one we use is Capital One.