Section 1031 Exchanges Genuine Real Estate Investors When an investor sells property, a resources gains tax is identified, in addition to a tax obligation on deprecation recapture. The regular resources gains tax, deprecation recapture, and also any relevant state tax obligation can usually lead to a tax obligation in the 20% to 25% range for the sale of real estate. (If the real estate has actually been held for less than year, every one of the gain will be strained at much higher short-term funding gains prices.).