Anyone traded houses?

[Survey1215]

We are trying to sell our house and are on contingency on the vacant house we wish to buy. Our current home has been on the market for about 45 days and has been toured five times. 12 times people have set up appointments to see the place but didn't even come in when they saw the piece of shit apartment building across the street. Given that and the current housing market, we're starting to grow concerned about our chances of selling at a price comfortable to us. Our contingency contract on the vacant house is for 60k more than we are looking to sell our current home.

Our realtor called today to tell us the investment group that owns the house we are looking to buy asked if we would be interested in doing a trade. Our realtor has never been involved in such a transaction, nor us. Any Dopers gone through this? Anything we should know?

[JSexton]

Did they mention the term 1031 exchange? 1031's are a great way to defer capital gains tax by exchanging property (with one party paying the difference in value). However, there are some restrictions, notably that it is only applicable to investment property, not your primary residence. If you've been living there, you won't qualify for tax-deferred treatment.