He is a Qualified Intermediary and does it for a living.

Your Intermediary forms a holding entity and takes title to the new property and holds it until you close the sale of your old property.  

I was in a forward 1031 exchange and could not find a suitable replacement property and the Qualified Intermediary would not refund my monies despite not having to do the exchange.

It will simply change the buyer to the Qualified Intermediary the buyer is required to use.

Then sell the other properties and use the proceeds to take title to the new property from your intermediary.  

A good Qualified Intermediary can help you navigate through the entire process.  3) Can I exchange for commercial property?

You can either learn how to select these sponsors on your own or invest via an intermediary that helps to vet and select them.  

If you are interested in this option, you should contact an exchange intermediary that does these kinds of exchanges and they can walk you through the process to see if this type of exchange works for you.  

The answer is that if you do it, it would be an uphill battle and that is because the Qualified intermediary would have to have a valid real property ownership. 

That's one reason (other than it being a legal requirement, of course) that you need a Qualified Intermediary on your team before you start the process - they take delivery of the proceeds to keep them 'clean', which keeps you from looking like you're trying to have your cake and eat it too.