Why List With Marcus & Millichap? The Case for Finding Your 1031 Exchange Buyer

One question sellers ask often: is a 1031 exchange buyer actually the best buyer for my property, and if so, how do you find one?

Is a 1031 Exchange Buyer the Best Buyer?

Often, yes. Here's why.

A 1031 exchange buyer is under real time pressure. Once they sell their relinquished property, known as the "down leg," the IRS gives them 45 days to identify up to three replacement properties, known as the "up leg," and an additional 135 days after that, 180 days total, to close escrow on at least one, or they lose the ability to defer capital gains tax on their sale. That deadline changes their behavior in ways that benefit a seller:

• They move faster through diligence.

• They're less likely to renegotiate price late in the process over minor issues, since walking away means losing their tax deferral.

• They're often paying with substantial equity from their prior sale, which can mean fewer financing contingencies.

There is also a procedural safeguard worth knowing: the seller must work through a neutral third party, called a qualified intermediary, who holds the proceeds from the sale and uses them to acquire the replacement property on the seller's behalf. This isn't optional. Deviating from the process can trigger unexpected tax consequences or penalties, which is one more reason exchange buyers tend to move with discipline and urgency rather than second-guessing terms late in a deal.

A traditional buyer with no deadline can take their time, shop competing deals, or use a soft market to negotiate down. An exchange buyer facing a ticking clock is often the more motivated, more committed party at the closing table.

Who Is Most Likely to Be a 1031 Exchange Buyer, and What Do They Buy?

The most common exchange buyer in Palm Beach County and across South Florida is someone who just sold a management-intensive asset, most often a multifamily or apartment building, and is looking to move into something with less hands-on responsibility. This is especially common among aging owners looking to trade into properties that require less day-to-day involvement while still preserving their built-up equity.

This pattern shows up constantly: an owner who spent years managing tenants, maintenance calls, and turnover on an apartment complex in West Palm Beach or Delray Beach decides they want the equity working for them without the phone calls. They sell, and now they're on the clock to redeploy that capital.

What do they typically buy? Triple net (NNN) retail. A single-tenant retail property with a long-term lease, where the tenant is contractually responsible for taxes, insurance, and maintenance, is close to the opposite of an apartment building from a management standpoint. It's often the single most natural landing spot for capital coming out of multifamily.

Before You List, Ask This Question

If you're interviewing brokers to sell a management-intensive property, here's a question worth asking directly: if your firm only specializes in one product type, where do your buyers actually come from when they're exchanging out of a different asset class entirely?

A firm that only sells apartment buildings can find you a buyer for your apartment building. But if you're the seller who wants to exchange into net lease retail, or the retail specialist trying to find a buyer whose capital is currently tied up in a multifamily sale happening at a completely different brokerage, a single-product-type firm has no visibility into that buyer at all. They're not in the room where that seller becomes a buyer. It's worth asking any broker directly: how many transactions did your firm close last year, across how many asset classes, and how many of those became exchanges into a different product type?

This is exactly the pattern Nick McAndrew has delivered on repeatedly for both sides of the transaction, sellers moving out of management-intensive assets and the buyers who exchange into single-tenant net lease properties to replace them. For a longtime South Florida property owner, after more than 30 years of ownership, Nick generated over 10 offers in writing on the client's commercial buildings, then facilitated the client's exchange into two net leased properties, a Wendy's and a Captain D's, allowing him to keep owning real estate while eliminating the management burden and deferring his capital gains tax.

Nick has delivered this same result more than once. In another transaction, Nick sourced an off-market offer directly for a private investor looking to exit his apartment holdings, then helped that client exchange into a single-tenant Sherwin-Williams property in the Tampa MSA, another management-light net lease asset that let the client redeploy their equity without taking on new hands-on responsibility.

This is also the kind of result that earned Nick recognition as Collaborator of the Year at Marcus & Millichap, an internal distinction that specifically reflects working across product types and across agents to get a deal done, rather than staying inside one narrow lane.

How Do You Actually Find a 1031 Exchange Buyer?

This is where the brokerage matters as much as the property.

Finding an exchange buyer isn't about listing your property and waiting. It's about identifying, right now, who just sold a management-intensive asset and is actively searching for a replacement property before their clock runs out. That buyer usually isn't found through public marketing alone, since by the time a listing is public, exchange buyers under deadline pressure are often already working through their broker's network.

This is where transaction volume becomes a direct advantage for a seller, not just a bragging point. Consider the mechanics of an exchange: the buyer has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is almost always another closed sale on the multifamily side. According to Marcus & Millichap Research Services, CoStar Group, Real Capital Analytics, and NICMap, over the trailing 12 months through the first quarter of 2026, Marcus & Millichap closed 1,415 multifamily transactions, nearly double the next closest firm. Every one of those closings is a potential seller who just became a motivated exchange buyer, on the clock, looking for a replacement property.

That buyer then needs somewhere to land. Over the same period, Marcus & Millichap closed 2,073 retail transactions and 1,491 net lease transactions, both the highest transaction counts of any brokerage tracked. Firms that specialize narrowly in a single product type can be strong within that niche, but they aren't positioned to see both sides of the exchange at once, the multifamily seller becoming a buyer, and the net lease property waiting to receive that capital.

Overall, Marcus & Millichap closed 4,502 total investment sales transactions across all property types over the trailing 12 months, the highest of any firm tracked, and has led the field over the full five-year period from 2021 through 2025 as well. That volume compounds. More multifamily sales mean more exchange buyers entering the market. More retail and net lease sales mean more properties and more relationships to place them with. A brokerage working across product types isn't just bigger, it's positioned to connect the two sides of an exchange that a single-product-type firm never sees coming together in the first place.

That scale shows up directly in exchange activity. Marcus & Millichap closed over 1,200 1031 exchanges last year, more than any other firm, backed by over $12.5 billion in exclusive inventory available for immediate purchase and over $50.9 billion in total closed transactions. On average, that's more than 35 transactions closing every single business day. For a seller whose property may be exactly what an exchange buyer is searching for right now, that pace and inventory depth is the difference between a listing that sits and one that finds its buyer inside the clock they're racing against.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a 1031 exchange buyer always a better buyer than a cash buyer with no deadline?
Not always, but often. An exchange buyer's deadline pressure tends to keep deals moving and reduces the risk of late renegotiation, though every buyer and situation is different.

What property types are exchange buyers usually selling?
Multifamily and apartment buildings are among the most common. Owners frequently seek to move out of active property management and into more passive, net-leased assets.

What should I ask a broker before listing if I want to attract an exchange buyer?
Ask how many transactions they closed last year, across how many asset classes, and how many of those transactions involved a buyer exchanging from one product type into another. A single-product-type specialist may not have visibility into buyers coming from outside their niche.

What if I want to sell but I'm not sure I want a 1031 exchange buyer specifically?
You don't need to target one exclusively. The right brokerage should market your property broadly while also actively surfacing it to exchange buyers under deadline, giving you the widest possible pool and the leverage that comes with it.

How quickly does a 1031 exchange buyer need to close?
They have 45 days from the close of their original sale to identify up to three replacement properties, and an additional 135 days after that, 180 days total, to close escrow on at least one.

Contact Nick McAndrew at Marcus & Millichap to discuss the current value of your commercial property or land in Palm Beach County, Broward County, or Miami-Dade County. Call or text: 561-245-0486 | marcusmillichap.com/advisors/nicholas-mcandrew | nickmcandrew.com