Selling investment real estate without an exchange sends a third of your gain to the taxman — capital that was producing income for you every year. A 1031 exchange defers all of it. Run by principals who have closed deals across the country, on a platform that tracks every dollar and every deadline.
Below is a typical rental: purchased for $350,000, held twenty years, selling at $1.2 million. Adjust any figure to match your property — the statement recalculates as you type.
This is an estimate for planning purposes only, not tax or legal advice. It assumes an investment property held over one year by an individual, straight-line depreciation, and no prior exchanges, passive-loss carryovers, or installment terms. Income and growth figures are illustrations at the rate you select, not projections or guarantees. Your actual liability depends on your full tax picture — confirm the numbers with your CPA before you act. Keep 1031 provides qualified intermediary services and does not provide tax, legal, or investment advice.
Most intermediaries go quiet the moment your money lands. Ours is built the other way: technology tracks every dollar and every deadline — and goes to work finding your replacement property.
Your 45- and 180-day clocks are monitored from the moment your sale closes, with milestone reminders well before anything comes due. Nothing rides on someone remembering.
You're notified when funds arrive, where they're held, and when they move to your replacement closing. No calling to ask where your money is — you already know.
Our acquisition technology screens on-market and off-market inventory against your criteria from day one — so the 45-day identification window starts with candidates, not a blank page.
For up to 180 days, your proceeds sit with your intermediary. How they're held is the only question that matters when choosing one.
Your exchange funds are held in a segregated account established for your exchange — not commingled with other clients' funds or ours, and never invested or lent while they wait.
Funds are deposited at established FDIC-insured banking institutions and move only twice: in from your sale escrow, and out to your replacement closing.
Disbursements happen only on your written direction to a closing you've authorized. You receive confirmation when funds arrive and when they move — no silence, ever.
Most intermediaries only run the standard exchange. We structure all of them — including the ones that require holding title.
Sell first, buy within the window — the structure behind most exchanges. We hold the proceeds, you identify by day 45 and close by day 180, and the tax stays deferred.
Found the perfect replacement before your sale closes? Under the IRS safe harbor (Rev. Proc. 2000-37), an exchange accommodation titleholder parks the property for up to 180 days while your sale completes. The 45-day clock never gets a chance to threaten you.
Exchange into construction: your funds improve the replacement property — ground-up or renovation — while it's parked, with the value in place by day 180. Combine it with a reverse for maximum control. This is the structure for buyers of dirt and value-add deals.
Relinquished and replacement close together. Less common today, still occasionally the right tool — and unforgiving of sloppy paperwork, which is why the intermediary matters.
Take some cash out deliberately and exchange the rest. Trade several properties into one. Trade one into several. Sell in one state and buy in another. Each has its own rules — all of them are Tuesday for us.
The exchange isn't only about the tax you don't pay today — trading up restarts the depreciation on the value you add.
Untaxed equity is larger equity. It acquires a bigger asset — more doors, more income — than the after-tax remainder ever could. The deferral is working from day one.
The value you acquire above your old property begins its own new depreciation schedule. Those fresh deductions shelter the larger asset's income — deferred tax on the way in, smaller tax bills every year you hold.
There is no limit on how many times you can exchange. Each trade compounds the untaxed equity — and under current law, heirs receive a stepped-up basis. Many investors defer for decades, and the tax is never paid.
The IRS clock starts the day you close, and the exchange must exist before that day. That is the step sellers miss — and the one we never do.
We're engaged as your qualified intermediary before escrow closes. Sale proceeds come to us, never to you — once proceeds touch your hands, the exchange is void and the tax is due.
You have 45 days from closing to identify replacement property in writing. We handle the identification rules — up to three properties, or more under the value tests.
You have 180 days in total. We wire your funds directly into the new purchase, the exchange completes, and the tax remains deferred — working in the new asset.
Most intermediaries have never bought a building. We come from the other side of the table.
The people behind Keep 1031 have developed, acquired, and managed investment real estate across the United States. We know what your timeline is up against because we run the same clock on our own deals.
Deadlines tracked, identification rules handled, funds secured, and coordination with your agent, escrow officer, and CPA — nothing falls through the 45-day crack.
The hardest part of most exchanges isn't paperwork — it's finding the right property inside the window. Our acquisition technology and operator network surface inventory that never reaches the portals.
The first conversation is complimentary and carries no obligation. If an exchange doesn't serve your situation, we'll tell you that too.
Real property held for investment or business use — rentals, land, commercial buildings, even a property used in your business. Your primary residence doesn't qualify, but a former residence converted to a rental may. Like-kind is broad: you can sell a rental house and buy an apartment building, land, or a commercial property.
Before your sale closes — that's the hard rule. If escrow closes and the proceeds reach you, the opportunity is gone for that sale. The best time to call is when you're thinking about listing; the last workable time is before closing day.
Deferred — the gain carries into your next property. But deferral compounds: your full equity keeps working instead of a taxed-down remainder, you can exchange again and again, and under current law heirs receive a stepped-up basis. Many investors defer for decades and the tax is never paid.
Your old basis carries over and keeps depreciating on its existing schedule — and the additional value you buy above the old property starts a fresh schedule of its own. Trading up creates new deductions that shelter the bigger property's income. Your CPA structures the schedules; we make sure the exchange qualifies.
In a segregated account established for your exchange at an FDIC-insured depository — never commingled, never invested, never touched except to fund your replacement closing on your written direction. You're notified when funds land and when they move.
Yes. The 1031 exchange is federal law and works in all fifty states — and the principals behind Keep 1031 have closed deals across the country. Sell in one state, buy in another; the exchange doesn't care about state lines, and neither do we.
Yes — that's a reverse exchange. Under the IRS safe harbor, an exchange accommodation titleholder holds the new property for up to 180 days while your sale completes. It costs more than a standard exchange and takes real structuring, but it removes the biggest fear sellers have: the 45-day clock. We can also build improvements on the replacement while it's parked — the improvement exchange — which is how developers and value-add buyers use 1031s.
Then the exchange fails and the tax is due — which is why our platform starts the replacement search the day your exchange opens, not on day 40. Working with an intermediary who can actually help you find property matters more than most sellers expect.
Fifteen minutes. Bring the property and your rough figures — we'll tell you honestly whether an exchange serves you, and exactly what it would take.
Online scheduling is coming soon — for now, email reaches us the same day.