Or you'll end up selling those positions fairly quickly and then negating the temporary advantage of the deferred tax from the 1031. 

Mainly:Annual Depreciation (About $50,000 for 27.5 years)Mortgage paydownAbility to refinance and lower your payment when rates decreaseAbility to use tax deductions for rental property expensesAnd More!...

I should add so many agents here, are gonna tell you this ******** about renting being a waste, but it’s literally cheaper by in some cases thousands a month when factoring in repairs, you can put excess savings into index funds etc. every single friend I have all of whom are pretty fiscally savvy have made the same calculation, I even have a good friend who is trying to sell his condo to rent because his monthly expenses will decrease when he sells his condo & he can be in a better area.

Just last week, they announced that there will be a temporary stop in Valencia and the island of Mallorca.

Rents have flattened and even decreased. 

Let me explain that better, imagine your rehab is $100k, you would need to do part of the rehab, maybe $10k, and then you can get the funds for those first $10k reimbursed so you can keep progressing with the rehab.Given your experience, I would recommend you start with a moderate or light rehab, mostly cosmetic work so that you can do it yourself and won't get your profit decreased by hiring third parties.

Your local bank may be vetting your finances and telling you 15 percent to decrease their risk.

It's a great temporary measure to purchase the new property quickly, but you really should be looking to pay off the HELOC fast, like with a mortgage on the new property.

Before you look to see if there are ways to avoid paying the tax, you should have an idea of how much tax you will pay.If the tax burden is small / zero, there may nothing that you have to do.If the tax burden is large, then you may want to consider some strategies to decrease the tax burden.Best of luck.

Does that just increase your hold time, so decreases real estate activity?