Sell the building. Keep the tax. Own a bigger one.
A 1031 exchange lets you roll the full proceeds of a sale into a larger property and defer the capital-gains tax entirely — six figures that stay invested instead of going to the IRS. Northeast 1031 runs the whole exchange as one coordinated team: we help you sell, line up the replacement, structure the tax and the 45/180 timeline, and hand you a building that’s already under professional management. An independent qualified intermediary holds the funds; we coordinate everything around it.
It’s a deferral, not a loophole.
When you sell an investment property at a gain, you normally owe federal capital-gains tax, depreciation-recapture tax, the 3.8% net-investment-income tax, and Massachusetts state tax on top. On a property that’s been held and depreciated for years, that stack routinely runs into six figures.
Section 1031 of the tax code lets you defer all of it — indefinitely — as long as you reinvest the proceeds into another “like-kind” investment property and follow the rules exactly. The gain doesn’t disappear; it rolls into the basis of the new property. Keep exchanging, and you can defer it for a lifetime. Hold until the property passes to heirs, and the basis steps up — a legitimate, decades-old part of the code that serious investors use to compound wealth.
That’s the whole game: every dollar you don’t pay in tax stays invested and compounds. Defer $120,000 of tax and reinvest it at a 20% cash-on-cash return, and that single deferral is worth more than the tax itself within a few years — before you count the appreciation on the larger property it let you buy.
The exchange is won or lost on two dates.
The day you close your sale, the IRS starts two clocks that run at the same time. Miss either and the entire deferral collapses — there are no extensions, no exceptions, and no partial credit. That’s why we start before you list, not after you sell.
Four specialists. One exchange.
A 1031 touches four jobs that are usually four different firms passing your file back and forth — and every handoff is a place the deferral can break. We call ours The Pre-Clock Sequence, because the work starts before the 45-day clock does, not after. Northeast 1031 puts all four specialists under one coordinated roof, with one exception the law requires: the money.
Sells your property & sources the replacement
A licensed Greater Boston brokerage lists the property you’re selling and lines up replacement candidates before the 45-day clock starts — so identification is a decision, not a scramble.
Structures the tax & the timeline
A CPA who invests in real estate himself owns the parts that decide whether the deferral holds: identification rules, boot, the entity that takes title, the debt-replacement math, the 45/180 calendar — and files the return that reports it.
An independent QI holds the funds
A qualified intermediary — an independent third party, never us — receives the sale proceeds and holds them in a segregated account until closing. IRS rules require this independence. We coordinate; they custody the money.
Operates what you buy
An established property-management firm takes over the replacement from day one — leasing, maintenance, compliance, and reporting — so trading up to a bigger building doesn’t mean trading up to a bigger workload.
Federal law requires an independent Qualified Intermediary. We coordinate the sale, the strategy, the replacement, and the management — but we are not the qualified intermediary and never touch your exchange funds, by law and by design. If that separation is ever unclear to you, ask, and we’ll show you exactly where your funds sit.
What the coordination is worth — and what it costs you.
Each price below is the going market rate for that piece on its own. We coordinate all of it at no charge, because our revenue is the sale commission and the property-management agreement, not a consulting invoice.
Pre-listing tax deferral estimate on your specific property
A standalone CPA consult runs this separately, before any exchange work begins.
Replacement-property sourcing before your 45-day clock starts
Most brokers won’t spend pre-listing time on a sale that isn’t signed yet.
An independent, qualified intermediary
Coordinated at cost, no markup — the standard market rate for a forward exchange.
Financing conversations started on day one, not day 44
Financing falling through inside the 180-day window is one of the most common ways an exchange dies.
Property management ready on day one of ownership
Most investors go 60–90 days self-managing a new asset while they search for a manager.
Your 45/180-day clock tracked and flagged at every checkpoint
The backstop most investors tracking their own exchange don’t have.
The free 20-minute Exchange Review
From “thinking of selling” to a bigger, managed building.
Most 1031 shops hand you a deferral and walk away. We stay on the deal from the first conversation to the day your new building is leased and running — the only 1031 desk in the region that also sells the property and manages the one you buy.
We help you sell
Our brokerage prices and lists the property you’re exiting — and the exchange is structured before it ever goes to market, while every option is still open.
We line up the replacement
Because we’re sourcing the buy and the sell, your replacement candidates are identified before the 45-day clock starts — not scrambled for after you’ve already closed.
We hold the deferral together
The CPA runs the timeline and the numbers; the independent QI holds the funds. The deferral is engineered, not hoped for — and the return that reports it is filed by the same person who planned it.
We run the new building
Day one after closing, an established management firm takes over operations. You end the cycle owning more, paying less tax, and doing less work than when you started.
Five traps that cost people the deferral.
None of these are obscure. They’re the ordinary mistakes that turn a clean deferral into a six-figure tax bill — every one of them avoidable with planning.
Touching the proceeds
Take the money into your own account, even for a day, and the exchange is dead. The funds must go straight to the intermediary at closing.
Missing the 45-day identification
Identification isn’t a phone call — it’s a specific written notice under specific rules (the three-property rule, the 200% rule). Blow the format or the date and the deferral is gone.
Trading down and creating boot
Buy cheaper than you sold, or pull cash out, and the difference (“boot”) becomes taxable. We run the debt-and-equity replacement math up front so you don’t get surprised.
The wrong entity on title
The taxpayer who sold has to be the taxpayer who buys. Partnership and LLC situations get technical fast — and are fixable only before the sale, not after.
Starting after you’ve already sold
By the time the property is under agreement, half your options are gone. Every trap above is easy to avoid before you list and expensive to fix after.
“What if I sell and can’t find anything in 45 days?”
This is the question that stops most people from ever starting. It deserves a real answer instead of reassurance.
Before you list, we agree in writing on what you’re looking for: price band, location, property type, unit count, and how you’re financing it. By day 20 of your 45-day window you will have a written slate of at least three qualifying candidates that meet those criteria, plus a written introduction to a licensed securities professional who can present passive 1031-eligible options if you want a path that doesn’t depend on the open market at all.
Three candidates by day 20, in writing, or we reduce our commission on your sale by half a percent.
The work gets done, on time
That the search actually happens. That what we find reaches you by day 20, not day 40. That you have a fallback path if the open market is thin. Every one of those is labor we either performed or didn’t, so we can promise it without qualification.
The market, the seller, the lender
We’re not promising you’ll love the three, that a seller will accept your offer, or that a lender will fund it. Nobody controls those and you should be skeptical of anyone who says they do. We’re promising you never reach day 45 wondering whether anyone was working on this.
The backstop attaches only after we’ve looked at your criteria and confirmed they’re achievable in this market. If what you’re looking for doesn’t exist at the price you want, we’ll tell you that before you list, not on day 38. That answer is free too, and it’s worth more than a guarantee we’d have to weasel out of later.
1031 exchanges, in plain English.
What is Northeast 1031, exactly? +
Is a 1031 exchange tax-free? +
What if my property is in New Hampshire, not Massachusetts? +
Do you hold my exchange money? +
Can you also manage the property I buy? +
What kinds of property qualify? +
How much tax can I actually defer? +
What are the 45 and 180-day deadlines? +
What if I can’t find a replacement property in time? +
When should I start? +
Miss your deadline because of our paperwork, and we cover your QI fee.
Give us your replacement-property decision in writing at least five business days before day 45, and if our team fails to deliver your identification notice to the Qualified Intermediary on time because of our own error, we cover your QI fee — in full.
We’re not guaranteeing the market hands you a perfect replacement in 45 days — no one controls that, and we won’t pretend to. We’re guaranteeing that once you’ve decided, the paperwork that locks in your deferral never becomes the reason it fails. That part is entirely on us.
We can guarantee our own execution. We cannot and will not guarantee a specific tax outcome — that depends on your facts, your documentation, and current law, and anyone who promises you a result is selling you something other than a straight answer.
Map your exchange before you list.
Bring the property you’re thinking of selling. In 20 minutes we’ll show you what a 1031 could defer, what your replacement options look like, and exactly how the sale, the exchange, and the management fit together for your situation.
The best day to start is before you list. Once you’re under agreement, much of what we can do for you is already off the table. Already listed or under agreement? Call today — the clock doesn’t wait, and neither should you.