I have recently been to Joshua Tree/Yucca Valley/Twentynine Palms area twice in the last two months as I just love it there and am considering buying property to have a second home.

What you are looking for is:1. what is the line made of - PVC preferred (newer), cast iron solid, clay would be a major concern2. are there trees in the front yard with roots growing into the line.

I thought that the article's instructions for the exchanging of stock is the solution to distributing the assets without recognizing the gain. 

There are a bunch of solutions.

To simplify the decision process, I created the following decision tree.

I can't guarantee how competitive they may be but it's a solution that we have used on some projects. 

Another auction the next month, I see a nice property with $4000 minimum bid, sold for $400,000+  So you have to think if you have access to $400K in cash in the next 2 hours to pay for your purchase and then not be able to resell it for 2 years.You might also want to read the book the 16% solution. 

At that point, it's worth researching and finding a solution that better meets your needs.  

We've looked into this some, and I see that there are ITIN mortgages, but their terms are quite unattractive.Is there another solution?

Talk with Scott Smith from Royal Legal Solutions.