As far as I'm concerned, Tony Phillips is the Guru of 1031 Exchanges and I wouldn't have anyone else serve as an Accommodator/Qualified Intermediary of this type of transaction. I reached out Tony last year with some very detailed questions as we were preparing to sell my mom's commercial property, and he answered them all in such a nice, patient, easy-to-understand manner. He even ran a tax projection for me at no charge with various scenarios.
Tony is clearly the most knowledgeable person on the subject as he's a CPA, MBA, MBT, and has been specializing in Section 1031 rules for 45 years. In our situation, we were selling a commercial property and were considering a 1031 Exchange. However, we had a huge loss carryforward which would have virtually eliminated all gain. I had questions about doing a 1031 Exchange (or Partial 1031 Exchange) to preserve the loss carryforward to allow other investments to grow.
I am not an accountant, but I'm a CFP and have some knowledge of taxes, which makes me curious when it comes to certain topics. Here are the areas where I picked Tony's brain:
-Partial 1031 Exchanges when Loss Carryforward is involved
-Depreciation Schedules: How does it work when exchanging from Commercial to Residential & vice versa.
-1031 Logistics
-Changing a property's classification from Rental to Principal Residence & vice versa
-Prop 19 Rules
What impressed me the most was Tony was encouraged by my prior knowledge and was extremely patient with my questions -- instead of getting annoyed as I'm sure most other CPAs would be (including our own). In addition, while he stood to benefit from us doing a 1031 Exchange, he initially advised against it. I even asked if his firm does tax returns in case our situation gets too complicated for our CPA, but he said it is never their intention to steal other CPAs' business, and rather they coach clients' existing CPAs & attorneys on the tax implications and tax law surrounding each specific transaction.
We didn't end up going through with the 1031 Exchange, but there is no doubt that the ONLY company we'd ever allow to handle a 1031 Exchange for us is Downstream Exchange Company (DEC). There are plenty of Accommodators/Qualified Intermediaries out there but none of the other ones I reached out to are CPAs and can't give any tax advice. In terms of cost, DEC's rates were very competitive with the rates of other, less knowledgeable companies. From what I understand, DEC also has a number of other CPAs and Tax Attorneys on hand to help you navigate this process. It's a total no-brainer to go with DEC if you're doing a 1031 Exchange! read more