Have you heard of National Council of Exchangors & Equity Exchanging ?
http://www.ncexchangors.com/
They are all about creative real estate deal structuring, using 1031s.
Example:
I have a small apartment I'm selling in Sherman Oaks CA worth $2.5m,
It was bought distressed, we repositioned it and now is stabilized.
I'll present it to a group of fellow equity exchangors
One of them would probably pay all cash,
Some of them would have 2 properties to trade
Maybe one of them has a fishing boat to trade
Or someone would offer $500k cash and a $2m worth of notes generating 10% or something,
And they'll usually have several "Legs" to their transaction.
Example:
I'm selling my $2.5m apartment to Person A ,
Person A is bringing in $500k Cash and another apartment in East Los Angeles
However Person A's $500k is coming from a 1031, he waiting for escrow to close on another retail strip center he is selling for $3m to Person B. Person B has another 1031 from a property he just sold to Person C.
Along with NCE, there is a "Society of Exchange Counselors" (SEC) that is invitation only, and there are only a certain number of people can be in the group
http://www.secobserver.com/
There are many individual equity exchanging groups throughout the US.
Here is a video about their Quarterly Conferences held in Las Vegas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYAuj9LRblk