Like-kind exchange, going from stick built houses to mobile homes

I have 8rental homes that I would like to sell and use the profits to buy mobile homes. But I would love to do a like-kind exchange so I don’t have to pay taxes on the gains. Has anyone tried this? If so, how did you buy all the homes to equal the equity in the 45 days allowed. Did you buy from a dealership or individual sellers? I am just trying to figure out my options. I have a mobile home park with empty lots I would love to fill.

There is a problem with your plan. The stick homes are real property. To do a 1031 exchange of real property, you must exchange into “like kind property”, meaning real property. But mobile homes are personal property and therefore not eligible as replacement property for your eight stick houses.   

I can not comment on the mobile homes to stick built side, though the tax man does classify mobile homes as real property. Meaning the homes I own depreciate the same as stick built. So- I am not sure you can not do it. But- there are very exact rules on identifying what you will exchange into- and if you exchange from one property into more than one- or it might be more than three- the rules get really, really tight. So do some research on the process prior to sticking money into that 1031. 

This is just a bit of information that I learned about:-  1031 Exchange / “Like Kind” ExchangeFor a 1031 Exchange / “Like Kind” Exchange they have:Qualified Intermediary (QI):  A QI is a business that basically holds the money from the sale of the old real estate asset until the purchase of the new real estate asset.I recently watched an episode of “American Greed”.  On this episode Edward Okun went about purchasing Qualified Intermediary Businesses.  Mr. Okun then used the money in the QI’s bank accounts as his own piggy bank.  Unfortunately, the rules that govern QIs are not as stringent as Bank rules.  Thus, basically 350 people lost their assets (not because they were greedy…but because one man was greedy and cheated them out of their life savings).One of the victims (Darlin Boudreau) had $482,222.03 stolen from her.Another victim (Elizabeth H. Callanan) had $854,000 stolen from her.This is just a bit of information to remember if you decide to do a 1031 Exchange.http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae/news/2011/11/20111117okunnr.html