1031 Exchange out of California clawback laws -best practices

[Wendy Stclair]

Hi

I'm in the middle of a 1031 exchange out of Cali and trying to minimize how much hassle i bring into my life with this "clawback law"  My thinking is this... can anyone confirm? If i leverage myself as much as possible and buy 6 or so multiple properties paying just the minimal downpayment, I will have many properties i eventually need to pay California tax on.  But if I just get 3 properties (of course with the required equity and boot numbers) i could buy just 3, one mainly with cash. That last one i would own outright and that would satisfy my exchange right? Then to make that money work for me later,  (maybe even soon if i wanted) i could cash out refi that property and buy more properties that would NOT be subject to the exchange.  is this flawed thinking?  thanks for any insights!