Where would I start looking for a DST?

[Donald Howaniec]

This is in conjunction with an earlier post regarding the sale of my property in Chicago and the purchase of a property in the Indianapolis area. I have been researching the 1031 exchange process and have come across the DST. What is your experience with these. How long should I expect my capital to be tied up? They look like a good option if I can't find another property. I would prefer a cash flow but can I expect appreciation also?

[Norman Schultz]

I've worked with Leslie for a couple of years now on two properties 1031 exchanged into DSTs. Leslie and her team are very professional and overall solid to work with. But something must have happened in the market to change the returns DSTs are producing. For me on average they are only slightly outperforming inflation, mostly because one of them just announced a dividend reduction. It would seem the days of the 7%+ returns cited in the past are over. And I'm not entirely sure why - I still invest in real estate and my other properties are performing quite well, and REITs have been outperforming the stock market over the last few years. And perhaps the biggest annoyance is that you don't actually know when your funds will become liquid. That said, these DSTs did save us from paying a very high capital gains tax rate, and I'm hoping there will be some capital appreciation before we cash out, so there's still a decent chance they will prove to be good investments. But sometimes I think we should have just taken the damn capital gains hit and just smartly invested whatever was left without looking back. 🤷‍♂️