1031 CoOwnership with California Examples

Co-Ownership of Real Estate (CORE) is a new spin on the popular Tenancy-in-Common concept that many investors are using as a 1031 replacement property alternative. This article focuses on the 1031 co-ownership concept by illustrating it with California examples.

Many investors are finding that markets, like California, are becoming over valued. While they love the 1031 concept which offers them a chance to defer the gain and avoid taxes on their appreciated relinquished property; the challenge has been to find a suitable replacement property.

One strategy has been to shift to different asset classes within the same local market. Along these lines, rental property investors are looking to commercial properties instead of single family homes, or condos, or duplexes for more suitable investments. They have been especially attracted to the concept of “NNN” commercial properties which alleviate many of the property management issues. However, NNN commercial properties are normally associated with a large price tag. This price jump traditionally puts these properties beyond the reach of many individual investors. In response, the marketplace began to develop ways for individual investors to join together to transition into these more expensive property types.

Indeed, since the mid-1990s, many investors have experienced the benefit of reinvesting their equity into co-owned investment properties structured as Tenancy-in-Common (TIC). For TIC owners, this works because they now hold an undivided fractional ownership of the investment property evidenced by a deed of trust that satisfies 1031 like-kind exchange provisions.

The notion of “Co-ownership of Real Estate (CORE), is simply another term for this same concept. Indeed, the CORE concept is similar to a TIC in that it enables an investor to participate in the ownership of institutional-grade, professionally managed properties. The investor’s equity can be diversified among several different properties, geographic markets and real estate companies, potentially increasing both the value and safety of the real estate investment. Finally, like TIC-investments, CORE investments are designed to offer preservation of capital, predictable cash flow and long-term appreciation in institutional-quality real estate assets that benefit from greater economies of scale.