Dwight Kay

Early on in my real estate career, I worked as an analyst in the 1031 exchange DST and TIC investment space. My job was to review appraisals, property condition reports, the environmental reports and zoning reports, studying the proformas, and reviewing underwriting and cash flow analysis. I looked at each deal from a real estate investment perspective. From there, I really dug into the securities offering, trying to understand does this investment make sense for investors and is it reasonable? What are the potential benefits and what are the potential risks?
What I quickly realized was that back then, most investors only worked with their wealth manager or financial planner, who really weren’t experts in 1031 exchanges or the Delaware Statutory Trust investment structure. If they were aware of DST investments, they only had access to maybe one or two DSTs.
So, I thought to myself that there needed to be firm specifically dedicated to helping clients navigate the 1031 exchange process and provide investors options and choices when it came to 1031 exchanges. I recognized that every investor has different goals and objectives, and everybody’s risk tolerances are different.
From the very beginning, I wanted to be a very specialized firm dedicated to Delaware Statutory Trust properties and to provide investors a platform where they could have multiple 1031 exchange and DST offerings to consider and decide which of them best aligned with their investment goals.

Once I realized I wanted to specialize in 1031 exchange and 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 over the past nearly twenty years, 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 Jesus and that this has been His doing for His purposes.

The truth is that building the www.kpi1031.com marketplace platform came directly from my experience working for nearly two decades with DST sponsor firms and their offerings. I wanted to create a single platform where I could share my insights and experience that I accumulated over the years with thousands of investors from across the country.
Another important goal of the Kay Properties online marketplace was to provide investors with as many DST options and as much variety as possible.
Prior to building the marketplace, investors would typically go to a financial advisor who had only one to two offerings and that was it. But the Kay Properties DST online marketplace changed all that. Now, investors simply visit www.kpi1031.com, log-in and immediately gain access to 20, 40, and sometimes 50 different DST and 721 UPREIT offerings from over 25 different DST sponsor companies.
Once investors access our significant selection of different DST, 721 and 1031 properties, they can narrow down their selection and Kay Properties is there to engage investors including walking each investor through the potential pros and potential cons of each of the DST property listed in the menu. This includes a deep look into the property's business plan and potential risk factors that investors should be aware of before investing in any real estate-related investment. Clients also receive a Private Placement Memorandum for each of the DST investment opportunities they are interested in. A private placement memorandum (PPM) is a legal document that provides a detailed summary of the offering that should include information on risk factors, financing terms, property and market information, sponsor background, and financial information. The PPM includes exhibits might also include other important documents such as the DST trust agreement, subscription agreements, lease agreements, and other relative information.
It has been said that the Kay Properties online marketplace is the perfect solution for the 1031 exchange equation, satisfying the needs of both investors and sponsoring firms. The platform also helps investors find DST properties from a variety of asset classes, geographic regions, and tenant mixes with numerous debt-ratio options for debt replacement purposes.
The www.kpi1031.com marketplace has been widely adopted by investors across the country.

One area Kay Properties excels in is our focus on educating investors on the pros and cons of Delaware Statutory Trusts. Kay Properties firmly believes in the power and importance of investor education which is why we created one of the most complete educational platforms for DST 1031 and 721 exchange investors in the nation. We have been told many times that no one in the country does more to educate investors on DST Investments for their 1031 exchange than Kay Properties.
Our 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 discussing specific DST investment strategies, in-person investor symposiums throughout the country along with a complete library of relevant articles that are searchable via the Kay Properties blog. Kay Properties also publishes a magazine, “1031 DST Digest”, a newspaper, “1031 Exchange Times”, and has a full podcast library that covers many important topics for DST 1031 investors. 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 mitigating risk when it comes to real estate and DST investing, emphasizing the reduction of risk as the primary objective. Because of this philosophy, Kay Properties & Investments emphasizes certain investment philosophies that are the investment hallmarks of the firm. Some of these investment pillars include:
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1. Don’t load up on debt.
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We have seen it time and time again - investors and sponsor firms over leverage in an attempt to capture greater returns. However, as a result, they are subject to leverage traps such as cash flow sweeps and even lender foreclosure. That’s why Kay Properties & Investments encourages investors to favor debt-free DST properties over highly leveraged assets. 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. For investors needing debt for their 1031 exchange we do have many DST offerings with non-recourse financing however, not taking on additional unneeded debt is very important.
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2. Avoid recession-prone, highly volatile real estate asset classes.
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In the opinion of Kay Properties & Investments there are several asset classes that we deem to be “Risk Awareness” which means they have a higher amount of risk than traditional real estate asset classes. These include:

Hotel and Hospitality Assets
Senior Care Facilities
Student Housing
Oil and Gas Royalties – One of the most extremely risky asset classes in the DST space which although if we offered these to our clients at Kay Properties we could make much more money… We DON’T, as we are wanting to protect our investors from the extreme risks of oil and gas royalties.
At the www.kpi1031.com marketplace, investors can 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. Having a variety of debt-free and leveraged DSTs is one of the things that truly sets us apart.
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3. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
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It’s our timeless defensive strategy to emphasize diversification when investing in real estate whenever possible. While diversification does not guarantee profits or protect against losses, we believe that using Delaware Statutory Trusts to invest capital into multiple asset classes across multiple geographic locations and with a variety of tenants mixes can help mitigate risk. The Kay Properties online marketplace located at www.kpi1031.com provides investors a wide range of DST properties from over 25 different DST sponsors to help investors achieve greater diversification.

One of the highlights of my career has been to help lead Kay Properties into one of the nation’s largest 1031 exchange marketplaces while simultaneously elevating the visibility of the Delaware Statutory Trust 1031 exchange investment platform across the country among accredited investors and Commercial Real Estate industry professionals. One of the ways we were successfully able to accomplish this was with a pure client-centric philosophy. This philosophy is inspired by the notion that each client is a unique entity with their own individual investment objectives and special challenges. There is no such thing as a “one size fits all” mentality at Kay Properties. That means Kay Properties insists that every Kay Properties team member spend copious amounts of time educating and providing clients with full information they need to make informed and educated investment decisions. Sometimes this can mean speaking with clients over the course of a few months, or it might mean calls, conference calls, speaking over the course of many years as well as in person family meetings.
Another highlight of mine has been how Kay Properties has successfully developed a fully integrated real estate investment firm that includes a growing team of licensed DST 1031 experts and complete back-end support specialists that provide Kay clients with deal sourcing, DST property analysis, due diligence and vetting, transaction coordination, investor relations, in-house accounting, legal and finance.

My next endeavor is a natural and exciting extension of the work we do every day at Kay Properties, namely helping educate and empower investors on 1031 exchange strategies. While our team continues to expertly guide clients through the complexities of Delaware Statutory Trust (DST) investments, I am personally dedicating a significant amount of resources and time creating and refining certain foundational resources for investors.
First, I am in the final editing stages of a comprehensive new book focused exclusively on 721 Exchange UPREIT strategies. This book is designed to be a definitive guide, moving beyond the basics to analyze multiple 721 structures, their unique advantages, and the critical due diligence factors an investor must consider. My goal is to both demystify and arm investors with critical strategies that each investor should be aware of prior to investing in the 721 UPREIT structure.
Secondly, recognizing the rapid evolution of the DST landscape, I plan on authoring a second edition of my first book on Delaware Statutory Trust properties. It has been  nearly 10 years since its initial publication, and in that time, the market has matured, new topics have emerged, and investor strategies have become more sophisticated. This new edition will not only update the content but will also expand with new chapters on post-pandemic market dynamics, advanced portfolio construction, and the long-term stewardship of DST assets.
Ultimately, these projects are not just about writing books but rather they are about fortifying our clients and the broader investment community with the knowledge required to make confident, informed decisions.