There a way to go to court and force the other party to sell, its called "Partition Suit"  however, that's going to take filing a lawsuit, going to trial and paying an attorney. 

They want to sell an investment property and use the 1031 exchange proceeds to help with putting a down payment on a house for my family.

If you can walk away even and avoiding court, it is all the better for you and your partner.

I would rather be feared then loved and Ill take the risk of dealing with the magistrates and explaining a simple escrow account over losing money on a business transaction.Spoken like someone who has never stood in from of a housing court judge, stroked a large check to a lawyer, or taken a contracts class. 

Obliviously selling was the first thing I thought about my proceeding thought was to build a rental property on it.

(property closed on LLC) Technically no, you have to trace the interest and deduct the interest at the new activity where you used the proceeds.

Most prospectus I have read have gigantic disclaimers.As a moderator, I also wanted to caution that since you are all in the syndication business, proceed with caution.

@Andrew B.I would save up for vacancies, damage to the property and court cost.

If they don't show for court the eviction will likely rule in your favor. 

We recently sold a rental property and opted not to do a 1031 exchange as we did not want to re-invest all of the proceeds in real estate so now I'm looking into opportunity zone funds to re-invest just the gain portion.