The three-property rule gives you three lines. Exchangers use two for the deals they want and the third for something they half-looked at. Then a lender slips, a seller re-trades, and the third line is the only thing standing between the client and the tax.
The properties worth wanting are the ones other people want too. They have lenders who re-underwrite, sellers who take a better offer, inspections that find something, and partners who change their mind. None of that is unusual. It is what a competitive acquisition looks like, and it is why a forty-five day identification window is genuinely dangerous.
The failure is rarely a blown deadline. It is discovering on day one hundred and forty that line 1 died, line 2 is slipping, and line 3 was never real.
A standby replacement property is one that was created to be identified rather than found on the market. Because the seller structured it rather than bought it, the closing date is a term of the deal and not something inherited from a chain of other parties. It can be written on line 3 today and it will still be there on day one hundred and seventy.
Ours come in two halves, because every position we create is a fee and leasehold bifurcation. The leased fee is the land under a commercial building on a 99-year unsubordinated ground lease: nothing to manage, rent paid without offset, a modest yield. The leasehold is the building and its income above it: higher current yield, paid monthly, depreciable. The client picks the half that fits the client. See the one-page description.
The safe half yields less than a comparable bond. That looks wrong until you notice who buys it: an exchanger with a large deferred gain who will take a modest return rather than write a check to the IRS. The return they are buying is the tax they are not paying, and the yield on the land is a rounding error next to it.
The income half yields more than the market says a building should. That looks wrong until you notice who buys it: someone who needs income now, wants the depreciation, and is realistic about their own horizon. A term that is long but finite is not a defect to that buyer.
An institution cannot price a situation. A buyer in one can. That is the entire reason product like this is scarce.
Identification is by address, in writing, by day forty-five. A standby property has an address. Write it down. It commits you to nothing.
The exchange period is the earlier of one hundred eighty days or your tax-return due date. A sale late in the year can leave fewer than one hundred eighty days unless the return is extended. The forty-five days sit inside the one hundred eighty; they do not add to it. Your intermediary tracks both.
Earnest money can come from exchange funds. Exchange proceeds held by the intermediary may generally be applied as a deposit on identified replacement property. Your intermediary handles the mechanics; you do not touch the money.
A leasehold with thirty or more years remaining is like-kind to a fee. A 99-year ground lease clears that line with decades to spare, so either half qualifies. See the thirty-year rule.
A reservation agreement fixes the price and holds the closing window through day one hundred and eighty, for a fee credited at closing. If the client's preferred property closes instead, the fee is forfeited. It is insurance, and it is priced like insurance: a fraction of the tax it protects.
Up to three of any value under the three-property rule, or any number up to two hundred percent of what you sold under the two-hundred-percent rule.
No. Identification preserves the option to acquire. You may close on one, two or all three identified properties, or none.
No. The exchange period ends at the earlier of one hundred eighty days after the sale or the due date, including extensions, of the tax return for that year. A late-year sale can have less time unless the return is extended.
No. The list is fixed once the window closes, which is why the third line has to be chosen for certainty rather than upside.
Generally yes, on identified replacement property, through the intermediary. Confirm the mechanics with your qualified intermediary.
A leasehold with thirty years or more to run is treated as like-kind to a fee interest in real property. A 99-year ground lease is far above that line.
Nothing. Writing the address commits you to nothing. A reservation agreement that locks price and date is optional and carries a fee credited at closing.
Because the alternative is paying the tax. The return on the land is small next to the deferral it preserves, and for many exchangers that arithmetic is not close.
One email. We reply with what is identifiable now, the price, and the closing window. Your intermediary can confirm the identification the same day.
Email us the property