A true pearl - Dawna made the selling of our home and buying of our "new" home a truly painless and easy experience. She was involved in everything from help in preparing our home to sell to finding and negotiating the purchase of our new home. Even more amazing, as this is really my first experience in these types of transactions, she was able to keep my nerves at a low rumble.
She is a true expert in managing expectations of both sellers and buyers. I know this because we were involved in a sell and buy simultaneously.
She always seemed to have the right words to manage ruffled feathers between buyers and sellers on both ends of our transactions.
I don't believe anyone could, or would be willing, to take on all of the nitty-gritty aspects of the process, frequently leaving us to simply nod our heads yes or no as all of the myriad decisions were made.
I won't say the entire process was easy, but I will say I've never worked with a realtor who took more responsibility or worked harder to help us achieve our goals than Dawna did.
Would I use her again? You bet! Would I recommend her to a friend? In a heartbeat.
- Assemble a team of professionals: In advance of your sale, be sure to have an experienced real estate broker with 1031 exchanges, a strategic attorney, a knowledgeable CPA, a reputable accommodator, and a professional escrow company.
- Meet with advisors: Before listing the property to sell, meet with tax & legal advisors to determine tax consequences of selling property.
- Get forms in order: Have your real estate agent or broker include appropriate language in your listing and offer documents to formalize your intent to exchange. These may include preprinted forms for inclusion in the offer documents.
- Identify your search parameters: You will want to be searching for the upleg (new) property well before the downleg (old) property sale closes. As your accomodator will tell you, the time period for identifying your upleg property is limited. Make sure there are several options to buy to avoid buying a less desirable property just to comply with the exchange time periods.
- Confirm timelines: Make sure that all agents/brokers, escrow officers, and accomodators, whom are working on your behalf, are in clear communication and aware of timelines to encourage compliance with IRS exchange requirements.