Qualified Intermediary Coordination Exchange Planning

We coordinate the paperwork and timing between you, your qualified intermediary, and everyone else touching a New Orleans 1031 closing. We don't hold funds and we don't act as the QI. That role belongs to your qualified intermediary, and it should stay separate from the property-sourcing work we do.

What Coordination Actually Means Day to Day

A New Orleans exchange usually has a title company or notary handling the sale closing, a different title office on the replacement side, a lender if financing is involved, an insurance broker, and your QI managing the exchange funds. Nobody on that list is naturally talking to everyone else. We keep the QI informed on where the START EXCHANGE REVIEW stands, make sure identification forms get to them with time to review, and confirm funding instructions match what the replacement closing actually needs. When a deal involves parties across two or three parishes, each with their own title office and closing customs, that coordination role becomes more valuable, not less, because small differences in local practice can otherwise slip through unnoticed until closing day.

Where This Goes Wrong Locally

The most common breakdown we see is a sale closing at a New Orleans title company that isn't used to exchange funds, where the closing statement doesn't route sale proceeds directly to the QI. Louisiana closings run through notaries in a lot of parishes rather than escrow attorneys the way some other states do, and that can create confusion if the notary's office hasn't handled a 1031 before. We flag that early and get the QI's wiring instructions into the closing file before the sale closes, not after. We've seen closings get held up an extra day simply because the notary's office needed to confirm with their underwriter that routing funds to a third-party QI rather than the seller directly was standard practice — a call that could have happened a week earlier if flagged in advance.

• Sale-side title or notary contact confirmed early
• QI wiring instructions verified against the closing statement
• 45-day identification form delivered with time to review
• Replacement-side closing documents matched to QI requirements
• Post-closing exchange file assembled for your records

Keeping the Identification Form on Track

The identification form has to reach your QI in writing before day 45, and it has to describe the replacement property with enough specificity to hold up if it's ever reviewed. We draft the property description language with you before the deadline, not the week of, so there's time to fix an address or legal description error before it's locked in. In Louisiana, legal descriptions can carry parish-specific lot and square references that don't look like the metes-and-bounds format used elsewhere, and we make sure the description on the form matches what's actually recorded, not a shorthand version pulled off a listing sheet.

Funding Instructions at the Replacement Closing

When the replacement property is ready to close, the QI releases funds directly to the closing agent, not to you. We confirm the closing agent on the replacement side has the QI's instructions in hand before the closing date is set, and we check that the settlement statement reflects the exchange correctly rather than showing funds coming from you personally. If the replacement closing involves a lender, we also confirm the lender's closing conditions and the QI's fund release timing line up, since a lender that wants funds confirmed a day before closing can conflict with a QI's standard release schedule if nobody catches it early.

Why This Matters on the Timeline

Most of the deadline pressure in a 1031 comes from documents sitting in someone's inbox, not from the underlying property work. We track who owes what document and by when, across the sale side, the replacement side, and the QI, so the 45-day and 180-day clocks aren't running against paperwork that could have moved faster. A simple weekly check-in with every party on the file, even when nothing urgent is happening, tends to surface a stalled document days before it would otherwise become a real problem.

Coordinating a Multi-Property or Reverse File With the QI

When an identification list names several replacement properties under the 200 percent or 95 percent rules, or when the exchange runs in reverse through an exchange accommodation titleholder, the QI relationship gets more complex, not less. We keep a single tracking document showing every property's closing status against the QI's funds release schedule, so nobody is guessing which parcel is drawing down which portion of the exchange proceeds. That single source of truth matters most in the final weeks of the exchange period, when two or three closings can land within days of each other and the margin for a miscommunication with the QI shrinks to almost nothing.

Common 1031 Exchange Questions

Do you act as my qualified intermediary?

No. We coordinate documents and timing between you and your QI. The QI holds the funds and administers the exchange under the tax rules.

Why does a Louisiana notary closing need special attention for a 1031?

Louisiana uses notaries for a lot of real estate closings rather than escrow attorneys, and not every notary's office regularly handles exchange funds. We confirm the wiring path early so proceeds go straight to the QI.

What happens if my identification form has an error?

We review the property description with you before day 45 so an address or legal description mistake gets caught while there's still time to correct it.

Can you help if my QI and my lender aren't communicating?

Yes. We relay timing and document requirements between them so financing and exchange deadlines aren't discovered to conflict at the last minute.

Do you keep records after closing?

We assemble a closing file with the identification form, closing statements, and QI correspondence so you and your tax advisor have a complete record for reporting.

How do you handle QI coordination when several replacement properties are closing close together?

We keep one tracking document showing every property against the QI's funds release schedule, so overlapping closings in the final weeks of the exchange don't create confusion about which funds are going where.

Ready to organize the exchange file?