She was facing charges but they eventually got dropped and Lee's people fixed everything, got it on the market and she got like $50,000.00 from the sale proceeds. 

I decided not to proceed because of the $15k cost.

Insurance Proceeds and Taxability: The insurance payout you receive is not "free money."

I don’t take application fees until I have reviewed an application and proceed to step 2, the background check. 

And I think I've ruled out my original option #1, which was to sink all the proceeds from sale of my current house into next primary residence in Southern California. 

Utilize a 1031 Exchange: Under IRS Code Section 1031, you can defer capital gains taxes by reinvesting the proceeds from the sale into a similar “like-kind” property.

Because you are past your 45 day period and have a valid list in place your QI has to hold your proceeds until either you have purchased all of the properties on your list, or day 180.

well 70% of 455ks isnt much more than you currently owe at 283k the 70% of 455k is 318.5k and after closing items you might only net 20-30k tops (new loan minus current 283k - closing items = net proceeds in "hand.").So The question you should be thinking about is what are my closing items and is this enough cash to accomplish my mission/goal?

This will take all the proceeds I was getting from the sell of my house.

So if I’m understanding what I’m reading on 1033’s - house has mortgage of $350k and insurance policy is for $750k- leaving proceeds of $400k.