There’s a piece of advice you won’t hear very often from a real estate broker:
You probably shouldn’t sell your property.
Not your retail building.
Not your mixed-use asset.
And in many cases—not even your primary or second home.
In coastal markets like Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach, some of the most valuable real estate isn’t just defined by location or income—it’s defined by how long you’ve owned it.
Thanks to Proposition 13, many long-term owners are sitting on assessed values far below today’s market levels. That gap translates into real dollars—often tens or even hundreds of thousands per year in reduced property taxes.
If you capitalize that savings, the embedded value can be measured in the millions.
And here’s the part that often gets missed:
Even if you complete a 1031 exchange, you don’t carry that tax basis with you.
You reset—and your annual cost structure resets with it.
This applies just as much to coastal homeowners as it does to commercial property owners. Whether a property produces income or lifestyle, the underlying financial mechanics are often the same: low basis equals long-term advantage.
So what’s the alternative?
In many cases, it’s simply to hold.
For commercial assets, that may mean leasing and capturing income.
For second homes, it may mean keeping flexibility—personal use, rental potential, or simply holding a low-cost long-term asset.
That said, there are times when selling makes sense:
- A meaningful lifestyle change
- A desire to simplify
- A clearly better use of capital
- Estate planning shifts, especially under Proposition 19
- Or a fundamental change in how you view the asset itself
But those are intentional decisions—not defaults.
Before selling, it’s worth asking a different question:
What am I actually giving up?
Because in many cases, you’re not just selling a property—
You’re giving up a position that’s very difficult to replace.
