Create a shared ownership property, with the number of shares equal to the desired full-property sale price divided by $4.999M. One person buys all the shares under separate contracts (?).
1031 swaps. No sale, so no tax.
There was a great real-estate columnist named Robert Bruss who I read every Sunday and I purchased a bunch of his white papers who had unique ways to sell real estate. When real estate interest rates were high, he told sellers to consider rent to buy where a percentage of the rent went towards the purchase. I suspect if he were alive today, he would be recommending sellers do this.
It may be that sellers are doing this but it’s not registering as a sale because the seller is still in control of the property.