Congressional deal-making, as well as posturing overtures by the Biden Administration, has created increased focus on 1031 exchanges and what they mean to real estate owners and how they play the "long game" and "short game" for their holdings.

A recent August 25 report put out by Green Street offered commentary on small commercial property sales. One major factor influencing this market is the potential elimination of Section 1031 of the IRS code, which allows investors to defer capital-gains taxes on the sale of one property by reinvesting the proceeds in a similar property within 180 days.

Biden has proposed ending 1031 exchanges to help fund his proposed child care and family-leave legislation. There also are ongoing talks over increasing capital-gains taxes, which would hurt institutional owners more but would still cut into private-capital profits.