There are several reasons that you as a property owner should participate in a 1031 exchange. For those of you who are not familiar with 1031 exchanges, 1031s are a way to defer taxes on the capital gains from a sale of investment property.  1031s can be very complicated and you will also need the help of a 1031 qualified intermediary. There are 5 main advantages to exchanging property.

1. Preservation of Equity – 1031 exchanges allow owners to defer taxes on the capital gains from a sale indefinitely. This allows the owner to roll the gains into a new property over and over rather than pay the taxes. Keep in mind that if you do 1031 exchanges and then at some time in the future decide not to exchange you will owe taxes going all the way back to your original basis.
2. Leverage – You can exchange from a property that you have a high amount of equity or one that you own “free and clear”  into a property of much more value and has a higher cash flow.
3. Diversification – Exchangers can diversify by exchanging out of one property into two or more properties. There are time considerations that must be taken into account. Consult with an attorney prior to engaging in an exchange involving multiple properties.
4. Management Relief – If you as an owner have accumulated several single family rentals that require intensive management you can exchange them for one single investment property that requires substantially less management.
5. Estate Planning – In many cases, several members of a family inherent a single property jointly and cannot agree on what they want to do with it. The family members can exchange the property for several different properties that suit the needs of all family members.

Always consult with an attorney who is familiar with 1031 exchanges.

To find your replacement 1031 ranch for sale, farm for sale, mountain land for sale, equestrian property for sale, or land for sale visit www.landbrokermls.com.

Log homes have provided shelter for thousands of years. Over that time, they have evolved from simple crude structures to extravagant finely crafted structures. As you begin to plan to build a log home, there are several details you will want to consider.

Cost is obviously one of the primary factors for any home and is even more so with log homes. You can get economical log home kits that you can easily construct yourself. However, they will not give you the rustic high-end elegance of a handcrafted log home. Handcrafted log homes will cost considerably more than kit homes however they of a much finer quality.

Log shape is another consideration. Log kits can come in full round (typically not fully round- round on exterior and interior but flat tops and bottoms), D logs (flat interior and round exterior), and square. There is very little advantage of any one type construction wise. It mainly comes down to personal preference. hand crafted log homes utilize raw full round logs. Crafters then fit each log into place by hand. As you can imagine, this requires much more time and skill thus increasing the cost of handcrafted log homes significantly.

Another detail you will want to consider is whether you want your home chinked or not. Chinking is the weather proofing between logs. Originally chinking was made of a mixture of mud and straw. Today it is comprised of a foam backer rod covered with a silicon or latex coating. All log homes do not require chinking. Kit log homes use a weather stripping that is compressed between the logs and therefore do not need to be chinked. Also tightly fitted handcrafted log homes can be sealed in the same manner and therefore do not require chinking. If you like the look of chinking, any log home can be chinked. Just remember that this will be an additional construction cost. Chinking also comes in a variety of colors to match the stain that you use on your log home.

Another factor that affects the overall cost is construction time. Kit log homes require substantially less time to erect compared to handcrafted log homes. Kit logs are milled so that all logs are uniform and just need to be stacked with little or no handcrafting. Handcrafted log homes are usually erected twice. The first time the logs are fitted into place at the log yard. The logs are then taken down and shipped to the construction site where they are fitted back together.

There are numerous log home companies that provide both kit and handcrafted log homes. Prior to selecting a company gather all the info that you can on the company, their logs and construction techniques and if possible visit one or two log homes they have constructed.

When you are ready to buy that special piece of land to build your log home on, visit www.landbrokermls.com to search land for sale.

Buying land on Ebay is just as safe as buying land from any other source as long as you do your due diligence. Regardless of where you buy land, you always want to make sure that you use competent professionals (ie. brokers, attorneys, title companies, etc.) to help you with your due diligence. Never buy land site unseen. Even if you have seen photos of the property. Pictures are worth a thousand words but pictures also lie. It is too easy to present a property in the best light and leave out glaring faults using pictures.

It is always best to physically inspect the property. You can always put land for sale under contract with contingencies for inspection, financing, and other  diligence concerns such as environmental considerations, zoning, tax implications, etc. This is where having good professionals assisting you pays off. They are familiar with issues that might arise when buying land. Also, just because land is for sale and listed by a licensed broker dos not make it safe to assume that the property does not have issues that can cause you headaches or even legal issues in the long run.

When buying land, whether it s on Ebay, through a broker or through private treaty, always protect yourself by using competent professionals, doing your due diligence, and physically inspecting the property. If you follow these three simple tips you will save yourself a lot of headaches.

Best of luck and Happy Buying!