Sold a rental with a $310k gain and the 2026/2027 zone thing loses me

The 2% acquisition fee is on total project cost or on your committed capital? Those are very different numbers and the PPMs I've read are sloppy about saying which. Also ask what the annual asset management fee is, because a ten year hold at 1.5% a year is 15% of your capital gone before any promote.

Something nobody mentioned yet on cost. If the fund takes your $310k as a commitment and only calls half of it in year one, the uncalled half is sitting in your bank account earning whatever, while your deferral treatment depends on the money actually going into the QOF inside your window. Ask them whether they require full funding at subscription. I've seen both.

When a zone "sunsets" at the end of 2026, what actually happens to a building a fund already owns inside it? Does the fund lose the treatment or is it grandfathered? Because quarry's whole decision hangs on that and I genuinely don't know the answer.

@compass that's the right question and I don't think anyone on this forum should answer it as settled. The 2025 law tightened census tract eligibility, so some tracts that qualify today won't be on the new map. How existing fund property in a de-designated tract gets treated is guidance territory. Quarry, ask each fund manager to put their position on that in writing and tell you which authority they're relying on. If they get vague, that tells you something about the manager.

Numbers, because everyone's arguing philosophy.

$310k gain. Say your combined rate is 30% for round numbers, so $93k of tax you'd otherwise pay now. Deferral is worth the time value of that $93k, which at 6% for five years is maybe $30k. Nice. Not life changing.

The real prize is the ten year exclusion on appreciation of the new investment. If the fund doubles your $310k, you're sheltering $310k of gain, call it $75k to $90k of tax at long term rates. Also nice.

Now subtract fees. 2% acquisition plus 1.5% a year plus a 20% promote. On a mediocre deal that's most of your benefit, and you've been illiquid for a decade. @sextant is right that the deal has to stand alone, and I'd go further: the tax math only gets interesting if the manager actually creates value.

Ask what the project level debt is and what happens to your distributions during construction. A ground-up deal with a construction loan usually distributes nothing for three or four years. Also ask whether the fund can refinance and distribute proceeds to you, and how that interacts with your holding period, because that's a question for your own tax advisor before you sign anything, not after.

I'm in the same spot without the gain yet, so I've been reading the secondaries question. Ten years is the headline, but life is ten years long. Every fund I've looked at has transfer restrictions requiring GP consent, and there's no real secondary market for QOF interests. Quarry, if there is any chance you need that $310k in year six, that's the constraint, and no tax benefit fixes it.

Diligence list I'd actually run on a $250k minimum fund: prior fund realized results with dates, not projections. Who signs the construction contract and are they affiliated with the sponsor. Whether the sponsor has money in at the same terms as you or on a reduced fee basis. The new reporting requirements the 2025 law put on QOFs mean the fund carries compliance work now, so ask who does it and what happens to you if they file late.

And @ledger, your 30% placeholder is probably light once state tax is in it, which cuts both ways. Depreciation recapture also isn't eligible gain in the same way, so quarry's usable number may be smaller than $310k. His accountant needs to give him the exact figure before he signs a subscription.

What gets overlooked is that these projects are usually in tracts where staffing the property is harder than the pro forma admits. I've watched brand new buildings in tough submarkets run 12% turnover cost against a 5% underwrite because nobody local wanted the leasing job at the budgeted salary. Ask who's managing and whether they already operate in that specific submarket.

Slightly sideways question since I'm mostly reading about paper. Can a QOF just hold mortgage notes on properties inside a zone? That would solve the illiquidity problem for me. My understanding from what I've read is no, the fund has to hold qualifying property or equity in a zone business and a loan isn't that, but I'd like someone who actually knows to say so.