Selling Your Motel Without Giving 38% to the IRS

Good. You built something they want.

Here's the trap: a lump-sum cash close hands 34-40% of your proceeds to the IRS the year you sell. And a motel isn't one asset — it's three stacked on top of each other, each taxed differently. Capital gain on the land and building. §1250 depreciation recapture on the structure. And the sleeper nobody warns you about: cost-segregation recapture on everything you accelerated over the years.

IRC §453 spreads that gain across years instead of eating it all at once. Less tax. More compounding. On your timeline.

> ### What you CAN defer vs what you CAN'T > > CAN defer (spread over years): > - The land + building gain — §1250 real property. Note: if you ran cost segregation, the §1250 unrecaptured depreciation piece can be large — that's exactly what §453 stretches out. > - Business goodwill / going-concern value (brand-independent guest base, reservation book, seasonal repeat traffic) > > CAN'T defer (taxed year one — I won't pretend otherwise): > - FF&E: furniture, beds, TVs, nightstands, lobby fixtures > - Kitchen and breakfast-bar equipment, pool and laundry equipment > - The PMS (property-management system), signage, and low-voltage buildout > > All of that is §1245 personal property — ordinary-income recapture, due in full the year you close. Cost segregation makes this pile heavy, because years of accelerated write-offs come back at once. > > The move: allocate the purchase price so as little as possible lands on §1245. That single line item is the difference between a clean deferral and a surprise tax bill.

The math — $6M motel sale, 20-year hold

Assumptions: $6M sale, ~$1.2M basis after heavy depreciation on a 20-year hold. §1250 and the unrecaptured cost-seg piece spread under §453. Numbers are illustrative — your allocation drives the real figure.

Seller financing — without the risk

A normal installment sale means you finance the buyer. They stop paying, your money's gone. Real risk on a property you no longer control — and hotels change hands, get re-flagged, and get re-levered constantly.

§453 flips it.

A Fortune 500-rated life carrier — Pacific Life, MetLife — holds the note and cuts your payments. Not the buyer. The carrier.

• You get the tax-spreading of seller financing.
• You carry zero buyer default risk.
• Buyer's fund blows up, the flag gets pulled, the PIP bankrupts them? Doesn't touch you. Your money already left with the carrier at closing.

Tax-smart payments, backed by an insurance giant — not the group that just bought your motel.

Motel- and hotel-specific wrinkles

1. Cost-segregation recapture is the sleeper tax. If your CPA ran a cost-seg study — and most hotel owners did, to front-load depreciation — years of accelerated write-offs come roaring back as recapture the year you sell. The §1245 portion is ordinary income due in full; the §1250 unrecaptured portion is capped but still large. §453 spreads the §1250 piece across years. Ignore this and the deal you thought was clean detonates at tax time.
2. A hotel is three assets, not one. Real estate (land + building), the operating business (going-concern, goodwill, the reservation book), and FF&E. Each gets its own tax treatment and its own allocation. Get the split right before you sign — it's nearly impossible to re-cut afterward.
3. Flagged vs. independent changes the goodwill. An independent motel's going-concern value lives in your reputation and local traffic. A flagged property's value rides partly on the brand — so the goodwill you can carve out and defer looks different. Franchise buyers price this precisely; so should your allocation.
4. The PIP obligation is a live negotiation. A franchise converter taking a Wyndham, Choice, IHG, or Best Western flag will owe a property-improvement plan — sometimes millions. That obligation gets priced into your sale, and how it's papered affects where value lands across the three asset buckets. Don't let it silently inflate your §1245 slice.
5. ADR, RevPAR, and going-concern valuation set the multiple. Your average daily rate and revenue-per-available-room drive what the business is worth versus the dirt. Nail the going-concern-vs-real-estate split first — it decides how much gain is even eligible for §453 deferral.
6. Seasonal and extended-stay properties value differently. A seasonal resort motel or an extended-stay property carries a different revenue profile and a different FF&E load than a highway limited-service site. That shifts the allocation — and the deferrable slice — more than owners expect.
7. Own the business AND the dirt? Two taxable events. Going-concern gain and real-property gain. Both structurable under §453, but each needs its own allocation and its own paperwork.

When this fits

• $1.5M+ sale (carrier minimums)
• 10+ year hold (real recapture exposure, especially with cost-seg)
• Cashing out of the property entirely (no §1031)
• PE fund, franchise converter, regional group, or owner-operator buyer — all have done installment deals

When it doesn't

• 1031 into another hotel or replacement real estate
• Sale under $1.5M
• A deal where you keep the real estate and sell only a low-gain operating business

How I work

Hans Goldstein, IRC §453 specialist. Carrier-appointed brokerage with Pacific Life, MetLife, Independent Life, USAA Life — all 50 states. Free 15-minute fit-check call — bring room count, flag status (or independent), ADR/RevPAR, basis, prior depreciation and any cost-seg study, FF&E schedule, and the offer.

Frequently asked

Q: I ran a cost-segregation study years ago. Does that wreck my deferral? A: It's exactly why you need to plan this. Cost seg front-loaded your depreciation, so a big chunk comes back as recapture at sale — the §1245 personal-property portion is ordinary income due in full year one, and the §1250 building portion is unrecaptured gain that's often large. §453 can't defer the §1245 piece, but it does spread the §1250 unrecaptured depreciation and the capital gain across years. Allocation is everything.

Q: My biggest tax hit is the FF&E and equipment. Can §453 defer that? A: No. Furniture, beds, TVs, kitchen and breakfast equipment, pool and laundry gear, the PMS, and signage are all §1245 personal property — recaptured as ordinary income the year you close, not deferrable. §453 defers the §1250 building and the capital gain on the land. That's why we allocate as little of the price as possible onto §1245.

Q: The buyer is a franchise converter and there's a PIP obligation. Does that change anything? A: It changes the allocation, not the eligibility. The property-improvement-plan cost gets priced into your deal, and how it's papered can push value between the real estate, the business, and the FF&E buckets. We make sure the PIP negotiation doesn't quietly inflate your §1245 (taxable-now) slice at the expense of your deferrable §1250 and goodwill.

Q: I own the motel and the land in separate entities. Do I need two structures? A: Effectively yes — selling both triggers two taxable events, going-concern and real property. Each can be structured under §453, but each needs its own allocation and paperwork. I handle both together so nothing falls between them.

Q: A PE fund is offering all cash and wants a fast close. Can §453 keep up? A: Yes — the structure is set up before closing and settles at the table, so it doesn't slow a cash deal down. The one thing that can't wait is the purchase-price allocation between land, building, business, and FF&E. We lock that in during the LOI/PSA stage, not after. Bring me the offer early and it's a non-issue.

Educational. Not tax or legal advice.