Should You Sell or Hold Your Apartment Building? See the Real Numbers First.
If you own a rental property you've held for decades, the question “should I sell or hold?” is not simple. Most commercial brokerage is built for speed and volume: list the building, find a buyer, close, move on. That model works for institutional sellers who do this every year.
But for a long-term owner, the real question is what you actually keep. Between depreciation recapture, capital gains, state taxes, and transaction costs, the gap between your sale price and your net proceeds can be enormous, and decisions made early in the process determine which number you actually live on.
The Legacy Exit Process™: Exit Planning, Not Just a Listing
Our practice is built on a structured exit-planning approach we call the Legacy Exit Process. The difference in plain terms:
A transaction-focused broker asks
“What price can we get?”
“When can we list?”
“Who's the buyer?”
We ask
“What will you actually keep, after taxes, fees, and the IRS's share of 30 years of depreciation?”
“What has to be true before listing so you never feel rushed?”
“Where does the money land afterward, and is your family aligned?”
On a $1.5 million sale, the difference between a poorly structured exit and a well-planned one can exceed $200,000 in preserved equity. That's not a sales claim. It's arithmetic, and we'll model it for your specific property before you make any decision.
What We Model Before You Decide Anything
Every engagement starts with a four-scenario analysis, in plain English:
Keep the building as-is
Sell outright and pay the taxes
Sell with a 1031 exchange into a replacement property
Sell with a tax-deferral structure (your CPA and a licensed specialist help evaluate the options)
You see all four side by side, including the one where you don't sell at all.
We are licensed real estate professionals, not attorneys, CPAs, or investment advisors. Tax-deferral structures involving securities (such as Delaware Statutory Trusts or 721 UPREITs) are evaluated and executed exclusively through your CPA and FINRA-licensed or SEC-registered professionals; our role is education and coordination. For a deeper look at how 1031 exchanges and capital-gains deferral work, see our Resources library.
See Your Apartment Sale Numbers, Modeled Free
We'll model all four scenarios for your specific property, in plain English, at no cost.
Start a Conversation