Dwight Kay

I had been in commercial real estate since my early days even before the Great Financial Crisis of 08/09. I started as an analyst for a wealth management firm that sold mutual funds, annuities, and life insurance and also did a moderate amount of 1031 exchange investments. My job was to review various 1031 exchange properties and DSTs for our clients – leases, offering materials, third-party diligence reports, etc. I quickly realized this is what I wanted to specialize in, so I personally invested in a Delaware Statutory Trust investment alongside some of my earliest clients.
It wasn't a large amount of money at that time, but it was a foundational moment for me. I decided right then and there that I wanted to be the absolute best at DSTs and that I wanted to specialize in them so as to provide hands down the best education and understanding of DSTs, 1031 exchanges, and 721 exchanges for investors nationwide. I knew DSTs could fit a need with clients, and that they would need someone to help them out with understanding the DST structure. They were going to need a specialist, and Kay Properties & Investments was going to be the go-to specialist for Delaware Statutory Trust, 1031 exchange, and 721 exchange UPREIT investors.

Once I realized I wanted to specialize in Delaware Statutory Trust investments, then I set out to build a platform that was best in class in the DST 1031 Exchange space, and the www.kpi1031.com marketplace was born.
Together with a phenomenal group of highly talented team members, we have been able to help thousands of investors nationwide participate in DST, 1031, and 721 exchange investments. Above all that, I truly believe I have been blessed by the Lord and that this has been His doing for His purposes.

The truth is that building the www.kpi1031.com marketplace platform has been an ongoing and never-ending process that has stemmed from working for nearly two decades with 1031 Exchange investors. It was through this vast experience that I have wanted to create a platform where the knowledge and experience I have accumulated over the years could be passed down to my team and our thousands of investors from across the country.
I really wanted to share our deep knowledge about DSTs, 1031 exchanges, and 721 exchanges with our investors. This is my passion, to help investors make the right decision for their particular situation. Kay Properties and the www.kpi1031.com marketplace platform provides investors access to typically 20-40 different DSTs at any given time from 25 different sponsor companies as well as a deep knowledge pool on all things DST, 1031 exchanges, and 721 UPREIT exchanges as can be found in our company blog, podcast, videos and educational materials which include the DST 1031 Digest magazine which we publish (www.1031dstdigest.com).

First, in an effort to serve our clients over the past nearly two decades, we have created one of the most sophisticated and complete educational platforms for DST 1031 investors and 721 exchange investors in the nation. We believe that no one in the country does more to educate accredited investors, and anyone interested in DST Investments for their 1031 exchange than Kay Properties.
This educational menu includes weekly webinars that help investors understand the 1031 exchange process and the many nuances of Delaware Statutory Trust properties, weekly live, conference calls, monthly seminars, and workshops throughout the country along with a complete library of relevant articles that are searchable via the Kay Properties blog. Kay Properties also has a full podcast library that covers many important topics for DST 1031 investors, and finally, Kay Properties offers a custom one-on-one consultation for interested clients.

One of the greatest problems in the world of 1031 Exchanges is that investors sometimes forget that chasing the greatest returns can mean increased risk. Kay Properties has always emphasized a risk mitigation approach to real estate and DST investing, emphasizing the goal of lowering risk where possible above all else. Because of this philosophy, we have developed certain strategies that are the investment hallmarks that I established when starting the firm and were instrumental in helping Kay Properties mitigate risks during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these investment pillars include:
1. Avoid recession-prone, highly volatile real estate asset classes (i.e. hotel and lodging properties, senior housing, and oil and gas production facilities.)
2. Don’t load up on debt. The pandemic exposed many highly leveraged investors to potential catastrophe, while debt-free investors avoided certain encumbrances associated with long-term mortgages including lender foreclosure. This isn’t to say all debt is bad; it isn’t. But a defensive real estate investment strategy makes limited or no use of debt a priority to mitigate risk. At the www.kpi1031.com marketplace, investors are able to compare and contrast debt-free DST offerings with leveraged DST offerings. We work with investors who need debt-free DSTs as well as with investors who need debt replacement for their 1031 exchanges, so having DSTs with debt is something that is important for us as well. Having a variety of debt-free and leveraged DSTs is one of the things that truly sets us apart.
3. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It’s our timeless defensive strategy to diversify real estate investment capital into multiple properties in multiple geographic locations in multiple asset classes and with multiple tenants. This can be accomplished easily through a wide range of DST properties accessed on the www.kpi1031.com marketplace. It is important to remember that diversification doesn’t necessarily mean higher returns or that there will not be losses.

Two things come to mind. The first is that by helping investors free themselves from the toils of the Three T's—Tenants, Toilets, and Trash—we have helped thousands of clients step away from the headaches of property management and spend more time doing the things they really love doing whether that be time with their children, grandkids, travel, hobbies, or other endeavors.
The second thing is that we are considered by many to be the most experienced and knowledgeable investment firm in the country specializing in Delaware Statutory Trust (DST), 1031 exchange, and 721 exchange UPREIT investments. The firm was established with the emphasis on providing real estate investment options to high-net-worth clients looking for passive real estate ownership, and as part of that, we created one of the largest 1031 exchange and real estate investment online marketplaces in the country that generates some of the largest DST 1031 investment volumes in the United States.
Kay Properties operates a fully integrated platform that includes a growing team of DST 1031 experts and back-end support specialists that provide Kay clients with deal sourcing, DST property analysis and vetting, transaction coordination, investor relations, in-house accounting, legal, finance, and asset analysis.

The next endeavor is really an ongoing passion of mine, and that's the continued growth of our sister company Cove Capital Investments. Now it is a monumental task building a DST sponsor company, but we have successfully done that. Today, Cove Capital Investments has more than 1,700 investors, 100 properties in our portfolio, and a total of more than 2.3 million square feet of real estate sponsored on behalf of our DST and real estate fund investors.
The aspect of Cove Capital that I am very humbled by is that all but two of the 100 properties in our portfolio are debt-free. That means that the vast majority of our DST property offerings are not subject to lender foreclosure, cash flow sweeps, and other dangers associated with debt. It really goes back to our emphasis on reducing risk when investing in real estate and protecting our investors from a bad situation with a lender when possible.