45-Day Identification Strategy
Forty-five days sounds like enough time until you are three weeks in, still touring buildings, and realize your top choice went to an all-cash offer you never saw coming. Miami's competition for mid-size commercial assets is real enough that a one-property plan is a gamble. The strategy here is building a ranked list early enough that losing your first choice does not cost you the exchange.
Most of the pressure in this window is self-inflicted, in the sense that it comes from starting the search late rather than from the calendar itself. An exchanger who begins touring properties the day the START EXCHANGE REVIEW closes has a real advantage over one who waits for the sale to fully settle before making any calls.
Why Your First Choice Might Not Survive the Window
International buyers and all-cash local groups routinely outbid financed offers on smaller Miami commercial properties, and a seller who has two offers on the table has little reason to wait on your loan approval. That is not a reason to skip financing, it is a reason to have a second and third property already vetted before you make your first offer, so a lost bid costs you a phone call instead of the deadline.
Building the Weekly Decision Funnel
Treat the 45 days as roughly six weekly checkpoints rather than one long runway. Early weeks are for touring and narrowing asset type and submarket, middle weeks are for getting serious offers in front of sellers, and the final week is for locking the written identification, not starting new searches.
- week one and two: confirm asset type, submarket, and price range against sale proceeds
- week three: tour finalists and request updated financials or rent rolls
- week four: submit offers on the top choice and line up backups
- week five: confirm lender feedback on every candidate still live
- week six: deliver the written identification with no property left ambiguous
What the List Should Actually Contain
Each named property needs a clear legal description, not a rough address or a listing link, and the same rule applies whether you are naming a Kendall multifamily building, a Doral flex warehouse, or a DST allocation held as a backup. Vague descriptions create the kind of ambiguity a QI cannot fix after the deadline passes.
Pull the legal description directly from the title commitment or the contract rather than retyping it from memory, since a small transcription error on the identification notice is exactly the kind of detail that can raise questions later even if the intent was always clear.
Handling Weekend and Holiday Compression
The 45th day does not shift because it lands on a Saturday or falls during a holiday week, and Miami's tourist-season calendar can make title companies and lenders slower to respond exactly when you need answers fastest. Build the final identification a few days ahead of the actual deadline rather than treating day 45 as the day you plan to finish.
Delivering the Notice So It Actually Counts
The identification has to be in writing and delivered to the qualified intermediary, or another party specified under the exchange rules, before midnight on day 45. A signed list sitting in a draft email folder does not count, and a verbal conversation with your QI about which properties you are leaning toward does not count either. Confirm delivery, in a form your QI will accept as final, with enough lead time that a technical problem, like an email that never sends, does not become the reason the identification is deemed late.
Common 1031 Exchange Questions
What happens if my top-choice Miami property is under contract to someone else?
You move to the next ranked property on your list, which is why building backups during the first three weeks matters more than perfecting your first choice.
Does the identification need to include a full legal description?
Yes. A street address alone is not sufficient; the written identification should describe the property clearly enough that there is no ambiguity about which asset you named.
Can I add a property to my list after day 45?
No. Once the identification period closes, the list is fixed, which is the reason a ranked list beats a single-property plan in a competitive market.
How many properties should realistically be on a Miami identification list?
Enough to survive one or two lost bids, commonly a first choice plus two or three ranked alternatives across more than one submarket or asset type.
Should DST allocations be included as backups on the list?
They can be, and doing so gives you a fallback path if direct acquisition candidates fall through late in the window, subject to your advisor's suitability review.
What counts as valid delivery of the written identification?
Delivery to your qualified intermediary, or another party permitted under the exchange rules, in writing and before midnight on day 45; a verbal discussion or an unsent draft does not satisfy the requirement.
Where should the legal description on the identification notice come from?
The title commitment or purchase contract, not a retyped version from memory, since a transcription error on that description can raise avoidable questions later.
What is the biggest mistake exchangers make in the first two weeks?
Waiting for the START EXCHANGE REVIEW to fully settle before starting the START EXCHANGE REVIEW, which quietly burns days that could have gone toward touring and vetting candidates.
