If you have ever sold or are thinking about selling an investment property, there is a very important question you need to be able to answer:
Do you actually know the rules of the 1031 Exchange?
In my experience as a commercial real estate broker who specializes in investment sales and works with clients across the country, this is where
The first rule of the 1031 Exchange is “Equal to or Greater Than” meaning either you fully reinvest the entire proceeds of your relinquished sale and defer all your taxes… or you don’t do an exchange at all.
That simply isn’t the case.
A partial 1031 Exchange can be an incredibly effective strategy—one that allows you to defer a meaningful
How to Fully Defer Taxes the Right Way
In my experience working with investors across the country, one of the most common and costly misunderstandings I see in a 1031 Exchange revolves around debt.
Many taxpayers, and even some tax advisors, believe that the IRS requires you to take on equal or greater debt on your 1031 Exchange replacement property
In my experience, many clients preparing to complete a 1031 Exchange start to feel a bit overwhelmed when it comes to selecting the right replacement property.
They’ve just sold an apartment building that required constant oversight.Or a multi-tenant retail center with lease expirations, CAM reconciliations, and tenant turnover.Or an industrial property where the calls about maintenance never seemed to stop.
Few strategies in real estate investing are as powerful — or as frequently misunderstood — as the 1031 Exchange. Designed to allow investors to defer capital gains taxes by reinvesting proceeds into like-kind property, the 1031 Exchange is a cornerstone wealth-building tool for serious real estate investors.
Yet despite its long-standing presence in the tax code, misconceptions continue to circulate.
Most property owners believe tax planning is only relevant when they choose to sell. But one of the most overlooked and misunderstood sections of the Internal Revenue Code applies when the decision is made for you.
I’m talking about the 1033 Exchange, a powerful but under-utilized provision that comes into play when a property is taken through eminent domain or
In the two-part series I recently published on the History of the 1031 Exchange, as well as the “1031 Rules!” episode on my YouTube Channel, Best 1031 Online, (below), we walked through something that often gets overlooked in today’s conversations about tax planning: how long this strategy has actually been around.
Yet despite the history, one of the more common
When Structure, Scrutiny, and Strategy Shaped the Modern 1031 Exchange
Welcome to History of the 1031 Exchange – Part 2.Hopefully you read Part One in my December 2025 post. If not, you can read it here
At some point, the 1031 exchange stopped being informal and started becoming intentional.
That shift didn’t happen overnight—but it changed everything.
As additional rules
How a Simple Idea Became One of Real Estate’s Most Powerful Tools
If you’ve ever wondered why the 1031 exchange exists, or how it became such a cornerstone of real estate investing, you’re not alone. Too many investors focus only on the rules without understanding the reason behind them. And when you understand the history, the rules make a whole
Every year, without fail, I hear some version of this:
“I’m thinking about a 1031, but I guess I’ll need to wait until next year.”“Don’t 1031 exchanges only really work at the end of the year?”“Isn’t there a better time of year to do a 1031?”
Let’s get something straight right out of the gate:
There is no such thing