Across the US, about 7.2 million homes sit empty—not because no one wants to live in them, but because many are simply too expensive to sell.

Take Los Angeles, where the average seller over age 65 would incur an “exit tax” totaling $185,054. Capital gains eat up about 20% of the profits. And if the property’s a rental, the IRS takes another 25% to recapture depreciation. Meanwhile, annual holding costs average $9,899, meaning a home can sit vacant for nearly 19 years before those costs surpass the tax hit from selling the property.

To avoid this tax bill, some wait until they die and pass the home on to an heir. Rental owners often defer these taxes by buying a new rental property via a 1031 exchange. But there’s another, less-talked-about option: a 721 exchange, also known as an UPREIT.

“This is a popular tax-deferral tool for stocks and institutional real estate investments, but few mom-and-pop investors have ever heard of it,” says investor Ari Rubin. He hopes to change that with his platform, Flock Homes. How it works: You transfer your property into Flock, which finds an occupant and manages the rental. The Flock Fund then pays out cash flow on your shares quarterly, much like a REIT. “Since no cash changes hands, it’s typically a non-taxable event,” Rubin explains.

Flock targets homeowners who don’t want the tax hit from selling or the landlord headaches of a 1031 exchange. As Rubin explains, “sometimes, you just want out.” The Flock Fund now holds nearly 1,200 homes across the US, valued at $279 million, and aims to mirror the housing market’s 8% to 10% annual returns.

Flock is one of a handful of new platforms helping investors rake in tax-free, hassle-free dividends via a 721 exchange or a similar product called a Delaware Statutory Trust (which does not need to happen in that state). But these seemingly sweet deals do come with downsides.

“It’s a one-way door, so once you’re in, you lose the ability to do future 1031 exchanges with that equity,” says Amanda Hahn of Keystone CPA. “You give up all control over how the property is managed or sold—which is good for some investors, while others may not like that.”

“I understand getting burnt out as a landlord and switching to passive investing, because that’s what I did,” says G. Brian Davis, co-founder of the real estate Co-Investing Club. “But the devil’s in the details.” Fees (including 6% onboarding, 1–2% closing, and annual 1% management on Flock, for example) will eat into returns. “This is why I stopped investing in crowdfunding platforms,” he explains. “Too many retail funds hit you with fees, and they never end up delivering what they promise.”

These platforms may also have minimum hold times (Flock is four to eight years, depending on your property) before you can redeem your shares. And once you do cash in, capital gains still apply unless you pass those shares to heirs. Taxes can be deferred, but not avoided forever. As Rubin explains, “You’re kicking the can down the road.”

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Planning a wedding is stressful. Buying and remodeling your own wedding venue in another country in two months? The ultimate relationship test. Find out how designer Daria Kulachek and her fiancé, David Ferrer Arroyo, somehow made it down the aisle.

Q: What possessed you to buy and renovate your own wedding venue? “I’m based in Los Angeles, and my husband is Spanish. We’d frequently visit Spain and talk about buying a second home big enough for both our families. One night while scouting Idealista, Spain’s equivalent of Zillow, I saw this 1920 stone manor house in Santiago: five bedrooms, three bathrooms, a garden, and a pool. We were also looking for a wedding venue. We thought, ‘What if we just bought one?’ We never saw it in person before buying; we sent local family members and an architect to assess it on our behalf. They reported back: extraordinary bones, needs a lot of love. The asking price was €390,000, around $450,000, which we negotiated to €370,000. My fiancé and I arrived two months before the wedding.”

Q: What did it take to get the space wedding-ready? “When I walked in for the first time, my heart sank. The house was virtually unlivable. We had to restore the heating and water before we could move in and had to wear hazmat suits to scrape the ceiling. Renovations cost around €15,000 [about $17k]. The week before the wedding, both families flew in, and we finished it together. There were nights I thought we wouldn’t make it in time, but people were kind to us in ways I didn’t expect while we were under the highest possible pressure. We had 55 guests, and it was the most beautiful day of my life! We named the house Pazo Palmera. I wanted our wedding to ‘bless’ the house so it holds this positive energy. We now use the house as a vacation home for our family and friends, and we’re making it ready for weddings or short-term stays when we’re not there.”

Q: How does running an event venue differ from a residential property? “With a rental, you’re optimizing for one tenant. With an event venue, you’re optimizing for a crowd. Coordinating caterers, florists, lighting crews, and sound engineers is no joke. Your systems (electricity, water, waste), surfaces (artificial and green), and garden need to be able to absorb that kind of use. We figured this out the hard way; we had to have extra restrooms installed on-site and bring in generators for outdoor lighting and sound systems.”

Q: What advice would you give investors on opening an event venue? “Find a good local event planner before you buy—not after. They’ll tell you immediately whether a property works as a venue—the access for catering vans, power supply, flow from ceremony to reception—and how much you can realistically charge and whether there’s demand. One thing we didn’t expect but turned out to matter a lot: Our garden is large and heavily planted, and the trees absorb sound in a way that an open terrace or courtyard can’t. It means music and sound won’t carry the way they would on a more open property.”

A picturesque place is just the first step. Here’s what comes next.

Check zoning. “A lot of people assume you can just buy a property and host weddings, but in many markets, paid events push the property into commercial-use territory even if it’s technically residential,” says Andrew Gardner at Leap Properties in Houston. “Owners need to check county and city rules.”

Bulk up infrastructure. Keep in mind those guests will need places to park… and pee. “We’ve seen rural properties run into problems because the septic system was designed for a family of four, not 150 guests in a single evening,” says Gardner. One easy fix? Bring in portable toilets, says Alessandro Foti, who rents out his New Hampshire home, Moose Lodge, for weddings and family reunions.

“The underground and utility work—septic, water, electric, parking, the access road—is the bulk of the spend, well ahead of anything you can actually see in a photo,” warns Billy Rhyne of Horseshoe Ridge RV Resort in Wimberley, TX. A generator could also help skirt a power outage once your DJ starts up.

Get insured. “A standard homeowner’s policy will not cover you. Event venues need commercial general liability insurance,” says Serena Fournier at The Wedding Duo. You’ll also want to draw up contracts to spell out what’s included (tables, chairs, parking attendants) and what’s not. The issues Fournier sees most often fought over: end times, overtime fees, decibel limits, vendor restrictions, damage deposits, weather and cancellation policies, alcohol service rules, and overnight stays.

Got a question about real estate? Ask it here, and we’ll answer it in a future issue.

Spanish villas cost about one-third of what you’d pay for a house in the US—leaving plenty of cash left over for flights and tapas once you land. Here’s more on why Americans are snapping up homes in Spain from Daria Kulachek at Inside Job Concierge.

How she got started: “Our first home purchase was a three-bedroom in Alicante for €98.5k (about $114k), which we rent out for €850 ($988) per month,” says Kulachek, who has been buying and advising in Spanish real estate deals for three years. “I recently helped an American investor purchase a three-bedroom apartment in Alicante for €115,000 ($134,000). The property now rents for €850 ($1,000) per month, a gross yield of roughly 8.7%.”

The pros: “Americans are now the top foreign buyers in several Spanish regions because Spain offers price points and value that don’t exist in comparable European cities,” Kulachek says. Financing is available to nonresidents at 2% to 3% interest rates, almost the inflation rate, although nonresidents will need a bigger down payment, covering 30% to 40% of the cost. “The lifestyle factor matters, too,” Kulachek says. “Most of my clients want an asset they might want to spend time in at some point.”

The cons: Spain’s Golden Visa program ended in April 2025, and a proposed 100% property tax on non-EU buyers is currently under debate. The slower Spanish pace may be refreshing, but not if you’re looking to close quickly or get renovations rolling. “The cons are logistical: Properties need to be visited and managed, and remote construction can quickly turn into a disaster if you don’t have a local representative,” Kulachek warns.

Her advice: Get help. “None of these challenges are insurmountable, but [the system] rewards people who have done it before or have guidance,” says Kulachek, who founded Inside Job Concierge to help investors navigate the process.

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