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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Maui Real Estate Investor and a 1031 Exchange

Many people have heard about a 1031 exchange, but aren't quite sure what it is, or how it works. I hope to shed some light on the subject. Important to note is that there is a tax exemption on the sale of your primary residence, and while a 1031 exchange can be applied to any property, it's most commonly applied to investment properties, where the owners tax burden is not protected by a primary residence status.

The basic principle of doing a 1031 exchange, forward or reverse, is to defer the taxes on the sale of the house that you own (relinquished property). In a forward 1031 exchange, the seller of a house transfers the proceeds from the sale of his house directly into an account with a 1031 exchange company. Note the proceeds are not realized by the seller, they go directly into an account at the exchange company. The seller then has 45 days to identify a new property (replacement property), and 180 days to close on it. The seller can identify upto three replacement properties, as not every escrow is successful, and the seller has the specified time in which to close on one of the identified properties. The seller can choose to identify more than 3 properties, but if he chooses to do so, the total value of the identified properties can not exceed two hundred percent of the sales price of the relinquished property. So, by doing the forward 1031 exchange, the seller defers the taxes due on the relinquished property, identifies a replacement property, and closes on it in a specified time period. A forward exchange will cost roughly $600.00.

In a reverse 1031 exchange, the owner of a property (relinquished property) can go about acquiring a new property (replacement property) before the the relinquished property is sold. In this case, the seller deeds the exchange company title to the relinquished property, which is held in a Limited Liability Company (LLC) at the exchange company. The owner goes about acquiring the replacement property in the regular fashion, with cash, or some cash and a mortgage, and can begin enjoying his new property. From the time the reverse exchange is established, the owner has 180 days to sell the relinquished property. When the relinquished property is sold, the proceeds from that sale are credited towards the acquisition of the replacement property, and the seller of the relinquished property is credited that amount. If for whatever reason, the relinquished property doesn't sell within the 180 days, the exchange company deeds the title back to the owner. In this case, the owner is not entitled to any refund of the roughly $ 4000.00 cost of setting up the reverse 1031 exchange.

If you have any questions about this post, please contact me by email: SA7@PeterSlate.com or by phone: 808 276 4017.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Aloha,

Peter Slate R(S)
Haiku Properties

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