You're David. A transaction can seem like Goliath. We're your sling.

How do we break down your Goliath?

See what you'd owe Find your path

The tax is the weapon you stare at. One sale, two collectors: the IRS swings the sword, California's FTB the spear. It looks unbeatable, so you never swing. The tax isn't what's really keeping you in a property you've outgrown, though. Your real giant is the lift, the transaction process itself: finding the next building, lining up financing, taking on a new set of tenants. That's the weight that makes selling feel impossible. There are legal ways to set the whole load down - defer the tax and hand off the management and the loans - or to keep building on lighter terms. Each fits a different situation. We help you find the one that's yours, then step back.

Southern California

Los Angeles · Orange County · San Diego · Inland Empire

Your options

You have more options than you've been shown.

When selling a property, you've probably been shown three doors: buy another building and manage it, pay the tax, or stay put. Here is a more complete list, sorted by how much lift you want to take on.

  1. Keep your equity working - drop the headaches.

    Delaware Statutory Trust

    Defer the tax, own a fractional share of institutional real estate, collect income - with no tenants, no toilets, no new loan to chase. The trade: it's illiquid and you give up day-to-day control, and there are fees. Not for everyone - but most owners have never been told it exists.

  2. Defer now - and growth that may be tax-free if you hold.

    Qualified Opportunity Zone

    Roll your gain into a Qualified Opportunity Fund; the growth on that new investment may be tax-free after a 10-year hold. OBBBA (2025) made the Opportunity Zone program permanent - zones now renew on rolling 10-year cycles, with a new round opening in 2027. Longer commitment, fund-specific risk, and the up-front deferral leg is mid-transition.

  3. Turn the asset into lifetime income - and a legacy.

    Charitable Remainder Trust

    Sell inside the trust, spread the tax, draw income for life, leave the remainder to a cause. Irrevocable; the math has to fit.

  4. Trade up on purpose.

    Classic 1031 into a property you choose

    If you genuinely want the next building, we make the exchange clean. This is the path realtors default to - sometimes it's right.

  5. Take some chips off the table.

    Installment sale / partial exchange

    Liquidity now, tax spread over time.

  6. Or pay smart.

    Sometimes the answer is to just pay the tax

    Small gain, end-of-life basis step-up, family liquidity. We'll tell you when.

Why you haven't heard this

Since this is legal, why isn't it talked about more?

When David faced Goliath, King Saul offered his own armor - the finest he had. It just didn't fit David, so he set it aside and used what did. Saul wasn't wrong to offer it; it was simply what he knew.

The people you'd normally ask are handing you the armor they know - and each has an honest reason it's all they hand you:

  • Your realtor offers what realtors offer: the next property. They earn a commission when you buy, and a DST means no purchase - so it rarely comes up. That's incentives, not bad faith.
  • Your CPA answers the question CPAs answer: the tax. Recommending a specific investment sits outside most CPAs' lane and carries real liability - so a careful one tells you what you'd owe and stops. That's duty and risk, not reluctance.
  • The default story - "you have to find, fund, and manage a replacement yourself" - is just the loudest armor, not the only one.

None of them is wrong. The armor just may not fit you. That's the gap we exist to close - and, for CPAs, the risk we take off your plate: we make the recommendation, on the record, as a fiduciary.

You can use any of these paths - including the ones we earn nothing on. We're a fee-based fiduciary on the Savvy platform, and we're straight about how we're paid. So we lay out every option, tell you when the simplest move - or just paying the tax - is the right one, and let you decide.

See exactly how we're paid →

On the record

Disclose everything.

Every advisor has to disclose how they are paid and what they are and are not. Regulators set that floor; a fiduciary treats it as the starting point, not the fine print. We put ours in plain language so you can ask the right questions and know we are on the same page. If an advisor keeps the important parts in fine print, are they really acting as a fiduciary?

See our disclosures →

The tools

See it before you decide.

The unknown is the scary part. So we made the two questions concrete - what would I owe? and which path fits me? - and let you watch what using them looks like. No sign-up to look.

Calculator: "What would I actually owe?" A few inputs, a clear number, and the deferral options side by side.
Standing Oakpowered by Savvy
1 Your numbers 2 The sale 3 Confirm rates 4 Your estimate
The sale
Sale price$1,100,000
Original purchase price$400,000
Years owned18
Accumulated depreciation$209,455
Transaction costs6%
Mortgage balance$0
Standing Oakpowered by Savvy
1 Your numbers 2 The sale 3 Confirm rates 4 Your estimate
Your numbers
StateCalifornia
Filing statusSingle
Approximate annual income $180,000
At this income: federal 24% bracket · California 9.3%
Standing Oakpowered by Savvy
1 Your numbers 2 The sale 3 Confirm rates 4 Your estimate
Confirm your tax rates
Federal long-term capital gains15%
Federal depreciation recapture25%
Net Investment Income Tax3.8%
California rate9.3%
Inferred from your income — adjust any before we calculate.
Standing Oakpowered by Savvy
1 Your numbers 2 The sale 3 Confirm rates 4 Your estimate
Gross proceeds$1,034,000
Estimated taxes owed$304,993
You keep$729,007
How do I keep more?
Just pay the tax$729,007
Defer allFull 1031 exchange$1,034,000
Cleanest boot1031 with a DST$1,034,000
Illustration
Open the full calculator →
Decision Tree: "Which path fits me?" A handful of plain questions narrows to the options that actually apply to you - and a summary you can bring to your CPA.
Standing Oakpowered by Savvy
The Decision Tree What's on your mind?
I inherited a fourplex and I'm afraid of the tax hit if I sell.
Ask & begin
Standing OakSkip to my report →
Who's currently on your team?
CPA / Tax Accountant Real estate attorney Estate attorney Tax attorney Qualified intermediary Financial advisor Realtor Nobody yet
Continue →
Standing Oakpowered by Savvy
Your Decision Tree Report
Here's your quick look Built from what you've shared so far — enough to see the landscape and your likely next steps. This report is yours to keep.
Resume where I left off Book a 10-minute call
Standing Oakpowered by Savvy
Your strategy landscape
Strong fit 1031 into a DST (Delaware Statutory Trust)
Possible Qualified Opportunity Zone
Possible 1031 into an individual property
Unlikely Charitable Remainder Trust
Illustration · a map, not a recommendation
Launch the Decision Tree →

Why consider a change?

What it looks like when it works.

These are illustrative scenarios drawn from real-world situations, with the numbers changed for illustration. They are not based on any single client, not a promise of results, and individual results vary. DSTs are illiquid, passive, and carry fees; distributions are not guaranteed.

The owner who kept the building.

Sold the business years ago but held the building it ran from. Facing a ~$5M sale and a large deferred gain, they skipped both the tax check and the hunt for a replacement: a DST deferred the gain and turned one building, one tenant, one market into a stake in ~11 properties across three property types and several states. Income held up (about $95K to $110K/yr in this illustration) and they stopped being the landlord.

The trade: illiquid, passive, sponsor fees, and roughly the same leverage, not less.

The inherited slice.

Inherited a 20% interest in a ~$10M property held in an entity, so no step-up, and siblings who wanted cash. Rather than be forced into a fully taxable sale, they rolled their ~$1.5M share into a DST: deferred the gain and traded an illiquid fraction of one building for a stake in ~8 properties, with income holding roughly steady in this illustration (about $38K to $40K/yr).

The trade: still illiquid, still passive, and you are trusting a sponsor's portfolio.

The tired landlord.

Wanted out of an eightplex with some cash in hand. Took ~$120K as boot (and paid tax on that piece, because we will always tell you which dollars are taxable), deferred the rest (~$1.7M) into a DST, and went from one building's repairs to a monthly statement across ~7 properties.

The trade: the boot is taxable, the DST is illiquid and out of your control, and a previously debt-free asset now carries modest leverage.

Fee-based fiduciary · Savvy platform · specialists in 1031 / DST / QOZ · Southern California. We facilitate the transaction and step back - we don't need the whole deal.

Questions

Common questions

Can I avoid capital gains tax when I sell a rental property?

On a real gain, avoiding the tax entirely is mostly a myth. The narrow exception is the primary-residence exclusion, and even that is capped and conditional. What most owners can actually do is defer the tax, sometimes for decades, or reduce it.

Avoid, defer and reduce, explained →
What is a 1031 exchange?

A 1031 exchange lets you sell one investment property and roll the proceeds into another like-kind investment property, deferring the gain, federal and California, instead of paying it now. There are two hard clocks: 45 days from your sale to identify the replacement and 180 days to close on it. Miss either and you owe the entire bill.

How a 1031 exchange works →
Is it ever right to just pay the tax?

Yes. If you need the cash, if the deferral structures do not fit your life, or if locking your money into illiquid replacement property would cause more problems than the tax saves, paying can be the right move. The point is to pay on purpose, knowing what you turned down.

When paying the tax makes sense →

Bring your situation. Leave with a plan.

No pitch, no pressure - a conversation about which door is yours. If paying the tax is the right move, we'll say so.

Book a 20-minute call Or run the numbers first →