The builder is unwilling to take the responsibilities of the damage as the warranty period has expired and mentioned that they obtained all approvals including 3rd party inspection before closing.

My wife and I are closing escrow on (2) MFU's in Mid City. 

And I'm not suggesting I have the answer, just a question.Office buildings are basically "on sale" right now.

I have not been as focused on the real estate sales and have really just held onto my license for the time being.

The reality is, (and I say this solely from personal experience...not from any point of real estate advice to tell you what you should do lol) most sellers don't care what type of financing you use, even if you change from cash to financing, as long as you successfully close on time.

The rules regarding the 45 days for identification of future property and closing within 180 days still apply so as long as you close all the properties within that time you should be fine and pay no taxes for the 1031 exchange. 

In my opinion, the most effective approach is to close on the property and take title.

I got confused a bit because the seller of the property had about 19k left in their escrow account at closing time from a 203k loan for the same property.

Settled at $247,900, 3% closing cost credits, and the seller also put in about $3,000 for repairs.

I just closed using Scott over at Orion FCU.