Must do 1031 exchange before July 15th , what to buy ?

[Tracey Robinson]

Hi, I’m a novice, trying to get into making extra income through real estate though I do have stable employment. Have just sold a condo and must do 1031 exchange by July 15th. Will have 400K as liquid funds from that, and have to spend 800k to avoid paying  66k of capital gains. Before covid, I had thought about a buying a home in Palm Springs to do as Airbnb, now that makes me very nervous. My ideas now have run all the way from just paying the capital gains ( due to fear of what will happen in the RE market ) to buying rental property on a platform like roofstock. I do have time off in June and July to find / research properties anywhere in US but no expertise in that area. 
Would appreciate any suggestions about what to buy, locations that may be best in light of covid / effects on the economy and if it would be best to buy up to 800 k or pay some boot because of economic uncertainty.
Ideally, if I could chose, I know this is not the best time to be selling / buying but this is a done deal that was in the works for months before covid was known. I do have good / stable income in the medical field, and good credit FICO score around 830 so I think I would be able to get a loan. 
Thanks for any advice! 

[Tom Kastorff]

@Tracey Robinson Feel free to share as much, or as little, additional info as you want, but you said "novice" yet are netting a not-small sum of $400k from a condo. Either you inherited well or invested incredibly well. What other RE experience do you have? I ask because buying $800k+ properties is not small peanuts. You also don't state what part of the country you live in or what part you want/prefer to invest in. Stating PS probably means you are in SoCal?

Thoughts
-very bad time to be a seller
-very good time to be a buyer, especially if you can wait longer as prices will drop in harder-hit regions (like vacation rental towns)
-very bad time to be Airbnb operator - they are dead in PS right now. PS is hard on a good day (most restrictions in the US), impossible in the current climate.

Taking the cap gains hit might be safer, as Brian stated, than risking buying a property that could either drop in value or be un-rentable for a period of time. Hard to tell. All we know is you put yourself into a very time-limited situation and have to do all your diligence as to which option makes the most sense in the immediate term. I guess you could also look at it this way - if one side of the coin involves paying the gov't $66k in taxes, can you afford to float a new purchase for a few months (meaning it will lose money - you are eating the monthly carry cost against no renter income) until things open back up? Basically eating cash from your pocket rather than giving it to cap gains. It would take a financially sound and savvy person to afford to do this. If not, paying the taxes may be the simplest way to come out and not forcing yourself to do something you aren't in love with. I would be making a lot of calls to a lot of top realtors in a lot of target markets, every day, if I were you, to find a way to escape this without paying taxes and buying something(s) you are happy to hold for a long time. I would be calling folks like Victor and Alyssa and coming up with a few viable scenarios that could meet your needs. Working backwards from July 15 you will have to pull the trigger on something soon.