Cashing out stock to invest in real estate? Tax Implications?

[Corey McKinney]

Can someone explain the options for cashing out money from an individual stock to then invest it in real estate? My wife was given a lump sum of stock in an individual company (Big corp./low risk) that a family member set up a long time ago with dividends reinvested. We are thinking of using this capital to invest in real estate instead as we are much more educated and knowledgeable (with the help of BP) in this field. What type of tax implications would we be looking at if we pull it out? Besides a self directed IRA, are there any other options on deferring or reducing the taxes I will owe? Obviously I would like to preserve the most amount of this fund in order to invest in RE.

Thanks!