Capital Markets
Running a 1031 Exchange Without the 45-Day Panic
Colton Elliott · July 8, 2026 · 6 min read
Identification deadlines punish sellers who start looking after closing. Here is the sequencing we use to have replacement candidates lined up before the clock starts.
The 45-day identification window is not a search period. By the time it opens, the search should be finished. Sellers who treat it as a starting gun end up identifying properties they would never have bought with a full runway — and pay for that compromise for a decade.
We start replacement sourcing when the relinquished property goes under contract, not when it closes. That typically yields 30 to 60 extra days of quiet searching, and it lets us approach off-market owners without the leverage disadvantage of a visible deadline.
We also identify three properties, not one, and we structure the primary target with a contingency the qualified intermediary has reviewed in advance. Redundancy is cheap; a failed exchange is not.
Finally, we model the tax consequence of simply paying the gain. Occasionally the best answer is to take the hit and reallocate. A broker unwilling to say that is selling transactions, not advice.
Want this applied to your asset?
We'll run the same analysis against your property and send back the range plus the assumption that breaks it.
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