Replacement Property Identification

A compliant identification is a signed, written document that unambiguously describes each candidate: a legal description, an unambiguous street address, or, for a real property interest such as a fractional or DST position, a description of the interest itself. Verbal identifications, voicemail messages, and casual text messages naming a property do not satisfy the requirement, even if the intent was clear at the time. The notice is delivered to the qualified intermediary or, in limited circumstances, to another party involved in the exchange who is not a disqualified person.

For an Aspen exchanger, this is the point where a rushed, informal list of properties has to become a precise legal document with correct addresses or parcel numbers, dated and signed, before day 45 arrives. Getting an address slightly wrong on a fast-closing Aspen or Snowmass transaction has caused real disputes over whether an identification was valid.

By the time a formal identification notice is drafted, the underlying sourcing and diligence work, rent roll analysis, T12 review, lease abstracting, should already have narrowed the field to properties worth naming. The identification document itself is a compliance step, not a research step: it pulls the confirmed legal description or address for each candidate, states the identification rule being used, and is dated and signed by the taxpayer.

The notice can be revised or replaced any number of times before day 45 without penalty, but once that deadline passes, the list is locked. This is why the drafting work should start well before day 40, leaving time to fix a description error or swap a candidate that fell through diligence at the last moment.

Every identification notice is checked against the same list before it goes out to the qualified intermediary.

• Legal description, parcel number, or unambiguous street address for each candidate
• Correct identification rule stated: three-property, 200%, or 95%
• Signature and date confirming delivery before day 45
• Delivery method documented, whether by email, courier, or hand delivery to the QI
• A copy retained in the exchange file separate from the QI's copy

Nothing about the identification notice is final until day 45 passes. An Aspen exchanger can add, remove, or replace candidates on the list as many times as needed while diligence continues, provided each revision is itself a signed, written, and timely delivered document. Once day 45 arrives, the list is fixed, and the replacement property ultimately acquired inside the 180-day period generally has to be one of the properties named on that final list, or the exchange falls outside the safe-harbor identification rules.

Because Aspen's own replacement inventory is thin, many identification notices for local exchangers combine one or two candidates found regionally with a broader national alternative, such as a DST allocation, held in reserve precisely so the day-45 deadline does not force a weak local choice.

This service fits any exchanger who needs the formal identification document itself drafted and delivered correctly, distinct from the broader sourcing work that fills the list with candidates. It should be finalized in coordination with qualified intermediary coordination, since the QI is usually the party receiving delivery, and it works directly against whichever identification rule strategy, three-property, 200%, or 95%, has already been chosen.

An Aspen exchanger closing on a compressed personal calendar should treat the notice draft as a task with its own due date well inside the 45-day window, separate from the sourcing and diligence work that fills the list with candidates. Waiting until day 43 or 44 to confirm a legal description leaves no room to fix a title company's slow response or a parcel number that does not match county records.