You can identify up to 3 protential properties to buy as long as you close on at least one of them. The federal government limits the rollover process to up to 3 properties. Most investors limit themselves to up to 3 properties to avoid being subject to more complex tests or simply minimizing the necessary paperwork.

You can identify any number of replacement properties you want to purchase so long as their eventual combined fair market value isn’t more than 200% of your relinquished property. Let’s say you sell a property for $500,000. The combined market value of your purchase should be no more than twice that, or $1 million.

You can ignore the 200% rule and identify any number of potential replacement properties for any amount as long as you buy 95% of the aggregate value of those properties. If you sold a property for $500,000, you could identify 5 properties worth $2,500,000, but you’d then have to buy at least $2,375,000 (95%) worth of those properties.