Beyond the Bottom Line
Beyond the Bottom Line is a podcast for founders and business owners who want practical insight they can actually use as they grow.
Hosted by Miguel Alexander Centeno, founder and CEO of Centurion Firm, the show features in-depth conversations with industry experts, clients, and business owners about how they think through tax, cash flow, operations, and the decisions that come with running a real business.
We focus on how things really work when you’re scaling, what challenges tend to come up, and how other founders, experts, and operators have dealt with them.
If you’re building or growing a business (often somewhere between $500K and $25M+ in revenue), this show is designed to help you make smarter financial and operational decisions and keep more of what you earn.
Beyond the Bottom Line
How to Reduce Taxes on Your Rental Properties
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How to Reduce Taxes on Your Rental Properties
You bought a rental property years ago. Maybe decades ago. It’s appreciated significantly, you’ve depreciated it down to almost no basis, and now the thought of selling makes you nervous because of the tax bill. Additionally, you’re also tired of the maintenance calls, the liability, the capital expenditures that always seem to hit at the worst time.
In this episode, Miguel sits down with Ari Rubin, founder of Flock Homes, to walk through the 721 exchange. It’s a lesser-known section of the tax code that lets you contribute your property into a partnership, receive shares in return, and defer all capital gains and depreciation recapture without triggering a taxable event. Ari explains who this works for, how Flock operates at scale with over 1,100 homes, and why younger investors are using this strategy just as often as retirees.
Insights from this episode include:
- Why you can’t just retire from being a landlord, and how the 721 exchange lets you step away from management, liability, and surprise expenses while keeping your equity intact
- How the 721 exchange differs from a 1031 exchange and why it’s been used in equities for decades to diversify concentrated stock positions
- The three ongoing benefits: continued income distributions, exposure to housing market appreciation across a diversified portfolio, and ongoing depreciation from new CapEx
- How redemptions work and why taking cash out of the fund is treated as a reduction in basis (like a cash-out refi) rather than a taxable sale
- When cost segregation makes sense for rental property owners (and when it doesn’t)
About Our Guest
Ari Rubin, Founder of Flock Homes, a platform that helps landlords exit their rental properties and transition to passive ownership through the 721 exchange, deferring capital gains while maintaining exposure to real estate income and appreciation Visit flockhomes.com to learn more .
Email Ari directly at ari.rubin@flockhomes.com
Connect with Miguel on LinkedIn or reach out at media@centurionfirm.com