Home, Land, Property Buying and Selling - 1031 exchange

Here goes a couple of questions.

Question 1.
I have rental property in California worth 500K I bought it for 170K. It is 50K from being paid off. I want to purchase two new rentals in Georgia. How much money do I have to use to purchase my new rental properties.
Do I have to use the whole sale price?
Do I use the sale price minus the commision and fees?
Just the capital gains?

Question 2.
The way I understand it, the property has to be a rental property for two years before I can sell it. What if I have the property on the rental market, but I am unable to rent it for a half year or so. At what point does the two years start?

I tried to ask the IRS and they seemed just as confused as I was. I other words, they were no help at all.:wall: :wall:

Thanks for any advice in advance
Redvette

This is getting into some very specific tax advice. I'd suggest you do a search on "1031" and pull up the "faq" section on any of the million or so sites of people who specialize in this very specific part of the tax code.

I do have one question though. You say it's a "rental property" but have a question about vacancy. Does this mean it has been your personal residence and you're NOW trying to rent it? Or has it been on your tax returns as a rental but you've just hit a dry spell?

frank

No, it is currently a rental. the tenancy is coming due and I want to sell it so I can be on one coast instead of two. I am just curious, what if I can't re-rent out the new rentals right away.