Adviser and farmer looking across a Central Valley field

Interactive · Farmland Exchanges

The 1031 Exchange, Start to Finish

Seven stages, two unforgiving clocks, and one rule about the money that cannot be unbroken. Walk the timeline below: each stop shows what happens, where your equity sits, and who is doing the work.

Avidity Capital Inc. Legacy Land Advisory Interactive timeline September 2026

Tap any stage

One transaction. Seven stages. Zero grace periods.

The light version is below on one line. Tap a stage to see the heavy version: the tasks underneath it, the rules that bind it, and where the money sits while it happens.

Your equity: in the land

Gold lines are the work Avidity Capital coordinates or performs as the family's adviser. We are not the attorney, the CPA, the broker, or the intermediary; we are the one seat responsible for how all of it fits together. Deadlines per IRC section 1031(a)(3): calendar days, no weekend or holiday relief.

The Short Version

A 1031 exchange is a relay race where the baton is your equity and you are not allowed to touch it. The proceeds move from escrow to a qualified intermediary to the replacement property without ever passing through your hands; touching them once disqualifies the exchange retroactively. Two clocks run from the day your land closes: 45 calendar days to identify replacements in writing and 180 to close, with no extensions outside declared disasters. Most failures trace to the stages before closing, not after, which is why the timeline starts months before the listing.

The timeline above is the map. Three companion tools do the arithmetic: the deadline calculator turns your closing date into exact calendar dates, the net-proceeds estimator shows what an outright sale would cost against a deferral, and the full 1031 guide covers the five rules with their Central Valley wrinkles, including the California traps: the Form 3840 clawback that follows out-of-state replacements and the escrow withholding decided before close.

One honest note about what the heavy view shows. None of the tasks on that timeline require us. A family can assemble the team, chase the signatures, track the clocks, and close an exchange on their own, and some do. What the timeline makes visible is the coordination load: dozens of tasks across six professionals compressed into two government deadlines, usually during harvest. That load is the job we are hired to carry, for a flat fee, so the family's attention can stay on the decision instead of the choreography.

Legacy Land Advisory

Want this timeline built around your actual dates?

Bring a closing date, or just a season you are thinking about. We will lay your exchange out stage by stage, with your CPA and attorney in the loop, before anything is signed.

Working with a family as their attorney or CPA? Start here.

Important Disclosures

This timeline is an educational illustration of a typical delayed exchange under IRC section 1031 and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice. Deadlines are statutory (identification within 45 calendar days; receipt of replacement property by the earlier of 180 calendar days or the due date, including extensions, of the tax return for the year of transfer) and identification limits follow Treasury Regulation 1.1031(k)-1. Individual transactions vary: reverse and improvement exchanges, installment features, entity issues, and California withholding and Form 3840 obligations each change the sequence. Successful completion of any exchange depends on many factors outside any adviser's control. Coordinate with a qualified intermediary, CPA, and attorney; current as of September 2026.

Regulatory Disclosure: Avidity Capital Inc. is a California state-registered investment adviser (CRD# 312745). Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. For firm background information, visit adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/312745.

No Commission Disclosure: Avidity Capital Inc. is compensated solely by advisory fees paid directly by clients. The firm does not receive commissions, referral fees, or revenue-sharing payments from sponsors, issuers, or product providers.