Sponsored Links

Featured Links

Other Topics
Sponsored Links





Quote of the Day

"The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure."

Dale Carnegie



Recommended Products





 




 
Featured Real Estate Articles

Make Real Money Online Using the Virtual Estate Concept
The really good information on how to make money online sells for thousands of dollars. However, if you are serious about making good money online, the simple yet powerful concept of Virtual Estate I am about to share with you, will show you exactly how, ...

Realtors who offer quality real estate services in California.
Realtors... you can often come across this word whenever you intended to buy or sell a real estate property or any activity connected with it. The same thing happened to me when I wanted to purchase a land in Santa Cruz. I do my business in Santa Cruz for ...

Real Estate: Making a Perfect Sell
Each real estate agent or dealer comes up with salient options, prices and proposals. When you've decided to sell your home and have a fairly good idea of what you think it is worth. For selling home wisely, you schedule your meetings with few ...




1031 Real Estate Exchanges - The Good and Bad!
 
One of the most powerful tools in a real estate investor's bag of tricks is the 1031 Exchange. When used properly it can defer the tax on capitals gains almost indefinitely.

A 1030 Exchange is really very simple. You don't actually have to trade one property for other... you just must use the gain from the sale of a income producing property to buy another income producing property. There are a few simple rules you must follow. One rule is that you have to complete the transaction with in a prescribed time period.

The other requirement of a 1031 Exchange is that you must never personally touch the money from the sale of the first property. Certain people and companies are in business to act as an "Intermediary" in exchanges. Their primary job is to collect and hold the funds from the buyer of the first property and deliver them to the seller of the property you are acquiring. And that's where the trouble starts.

In the past few years some Intermediaries have disappeared and the funds they were holding from many deals vanished along with them. Often the investor's losses amounted to from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Oh yes, there have been other problems. Some Intermediaries "co-mingle" the monies they are holding for exchangers. That means that all of their exchange client's money is held in one account under the Intermediary's name. If the Intermediary is sued for some reason all money in the account may be frozen. If the freeze lasts beyond the prescribed time limit (180 days) for exchanges the investors are out of luck. There are no extensions possible of the 180 day deadline. Now the investors must pay income tax on all those capital gains.

With the huge increase in real estate values in many areas recently, investors should be using 1031 Exchanges. There is just no better way to protect their profits and build net worth. But they must also protect those profits from careless intermediaries.

Make sure that your exchange funds are held in a separate exchange account that holds only your money and no one else's. That account must be separate not only from other client's monies, but also separate from the intermediary's assets.

Each of the accounts should have the client's name on it something like this: "The Exchange Kings, as intermediary for Barbie and Ken Investor". That account must have the investor's tax ID or social security number on the account. Now, no matter what goes wrong with the intermediary, your exchange funds will remain protected and accessible.

It's great to exchange a property for profit. Just don't exchange that profit for an unexpected loss.

About the author:

Mark Walters mentors real estate investors with free videos offered at http://www.CashFlowInstitute.com


Google


Real Estate News


Town Hall

Mo. drops appeal of real estate ballot measure
The Associated Press
2 whether to amend the Missouri Constitution to prohibit real estate transfer taxes, which typically are charged like sales taxes based on the price of the ...
Mo. drops appeal of real estate ballot measureKOAM-TV
Mo. judge orders real estate tax on fall ballotBusinessWeek
Ballot measure on real-estate transfer tax cleared by judgeKansas City Star
St. Louis Business Journal -Real Estate Journal Online (blog) -FOX2now.com
all 122 news articles »

International Business Times

Best of the blogs
Kansas City Star
Mariner Real Estate Management has purchased about $760 million in real estate loans from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The Leawood real estate ...
Mariner Real Estate acquires loan portfolioBusinessWeek
Leawood-based Mariner buys $760 million in real estate loans from FDICKansas City Star
Mariner Real Estate Management Acquires $760 Million FDIC Real Estate Loan ...Benzinga
Housing Wire -Emii.com -Bloomberg
all 25 news articles »

Jamie Dimon's real estate woes
Los Angeles Times (blog)
The bad real estate market has forced a series of reductions that have brought the listing price down by nearly half, to $6.95 million. ...

and more »

RiverSource LaSalle International Real Estate Fund, Inc. Declares Third ...
MarketWatch (press release)
Investments in real estate securities may be subject to specific risks, such as the risks associated with general and local economic conditions, ...

and more »