The 45-Day Identification Period

The forty-five day identification period is the first of two statutory deadlines that govern a Section 1031 exchange. The clock starts the day after the relinquished property closes, not the day of closing itself, and it runs for exactly forty-five calendar days with no exceptions for weekends or federal holidays. Investors in Columbus, OH who close a relinquished property on a Friday still count forward from Saturday, and the deadline lands at midnight on day forty-five regardless of when the Qualified Intermediary's office is open. Missing this window by even a few hours disqualifies the entire exchange and converts the transaction into a fully taxable sale.

During this period, the exchanger must identify potential replacement property in writing, sign the identification, and deliver it to the Qualified Intermediary or another party to the exchange who is not a disqualified person. Verbal identification, a phone call, or a property walk-through does not satisfy the requirement. The written notice must describe the property with enough specificity that a third party could locate it, typically a street address or legal description. Three identification rules govern how many properties an investor in Columbus, OH may name. The Three-Property Rule allows identification of up to three properties regardless of their combined fair market value. The Two Hundred Percent Rule allows identification of any number of properties as long as their combined fair market value does not exceed two hundred percent of the value of the relinquished property. The Ninety-Five Percent Rule allows identification of any number of properties without a value cap, but the exchanger must actually acquire at least ninety-five percent of the aggregate value of everything identified.

Franklin County closings and Central Ohio commercial transactions follow the same federal rules as any other market, but local timing details still matter. Recorder's office processing at the Franklin County Recorder, title company turnaround, and lender scheduling around Columbus, OH closing dates can compress the effective working time inside the forty-five day window. Investors frequently begin their replacement property search before the relinquished property even closes, since the forty-five days include weekends and cannot be paused for due diligence, financing delays, or negotiation. The only recognized extension applies to federally declared disasters under Revenue Procedure 2018-58, and that relief is announced by the Internal Revenue Service on a disaster-by-disaster basis rather than granted automatically.

Because the identification deadline is unforgiving, most exchangers treat the qualified intermediary's identification form as the operative document and confirm delivery through a method that creates a timestamp, such as email with delivery confirmation or a facsimile transmission log. Amendments to an identification are permitted at any time before the forty-five day deadline expires, so an exchanger in Columbus, OH may add, remove, or revise identified properties freely until the window closes, after which the list is locked for purposes of the exchange.