Courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Gekko
Imagine that you are saving for your retirement. You have scrimped & saved, invested wisely in the stock market, and you have a nice home. Now imagine that you want to take advantage of the slow down, depending upon which micro real estate market you search, in home prices. You decide to upgrade to a better home by executing a 1031 exchange. You sell your house and move the capital gains into a new improved home without paying the nasty taxes associated with a normal real estate transaction.
Now imagine that you decide to choose the best possible company to execute this transaction; your decision is to go with a “private company” not affiliated with the major 1031 exchange companies in the industry. Maybe you were saving costs or maybe it was a referral through a reliable source. The point is that you went with the small guy-that was your choice.
Now imagine that the day of closing your 1031 exchange company misses funding. You panic and call the office & nobody answers your call; the voice mail system is absent with no way to leave a message. Now in a state of hysteria, you race down to the office to physically confront the company you entrusted with thousands of your dollars. When you arrive, you find the doors locked with the office looking rearranged. Before you completely melt down, you blast back home and search for the company web site: the web site is down. No forwarding address, no telephone contact information, no web site, no office, NO FUNDING, & no explanation. . .
That is the scenario being played out right now, as described to me by a well informed source, with a small private San Jose, California 1031 Exchange company: “1031 Advance.” Although rumors are running rampant around Silicon Valley right now, no representative of “1031 Advance” has attempted to answer the simple question: Where the Hell are You? Until a company representative comes forward, the rumors will persist and the reality will consist of the simple truth-this was a rip off.
