DST Minimums and Sizing: How to Split One Exchange Across Multiple Trusts

What a year of Form D filings says about the minimum ticket

Every DST sponsor must file a Form D within 15 days of its first sale, and Item 11 states the minimum investment accepted from any outside investor. Twenty filings from September 2025 to September 2026 show where the floors actually sit.

Industry guides still describe $100,000 as the typical exchange minimum with cash buyers admitted from $25,000, and the filings agree that $50,000 and $100,000 are the two most common floors. Whether a sponsor will accept an odd amount above its floor, and whether it takes cash at all, is answered only in the private placement memorandum.

• $25,000: Senior Housing DST 12 (Rule 506(c), September 2026).
• $50,000: CS1031 Richmond Active Living Apartments, ERP 1031 Industrial Portfolio IV, Reliant/Midgard Self Storage DST I, CXP Orthopedic Surgery Center and four others.
• $100,000: LRT Hardeeville Multifamily 1, MCB The Enolia Student Housing, Bourbon Brothers Retail Properties, Critical Infrastructure I and MDI Overland Park Net Lease.
• $150,000: NLC Financial Service HQ and SW Florida Corp HQ Campus, both sold under Rule 506(b).
• $500,000: SRRT Benson DST; and $1,000 stated in three Cove Capital trusts, where the PPM rather than the filing sets the working minimum.

Three worked exchanges: $150,000, $500,000 with a mortgage, and $1 million

All figures are hypothetical and assume the floors above.

In each case the rule to satisfy is §1031(b): gain is recognised to the extent of money or other property you receive, so every dollar not placed in a trust by day 180 is taxed, though only that dollar, not the whole exchange.

• $150,000 of equity, no debt: one $100,000-floor trust plus one $50,000-floor trust, or a single trust taking the full amount. If every trust you like has a $100,000 floor, the spare $50,000 has nowhere to go and is taxed as boot.
• $500,000 of equity after paying off a $300,000 loan: you must acquire $800,000 of value and replace $300,000 of debt. Two trusts financed at about 50% loan-to-value absorb $400,000 of equity and bring $400,000 of debt; a third, debt-free trust takes the last $100,000. Leverage inside each trust is explained on DST leverage and interest-rate risk.
• $1,000,000 of equity: five trusts of $200,000 across five sponsors and sectors, or four of $250,000; the diversification page shows why five or six is a practical ceiling.

The three-property and 200% rules decide how many trusts you may name, not how many you may buy

Reg. §1.1031(k)-1(c)(4) lets you identify up to three properties of any value, or any number of properties whose combined value does not exceed 200% of what you sold; if you overshoot both, the exchange survives only if you actually acquire 95% of everything identified. Each trust you name is a property on that list.

Identification must be unambiguous under §1.1031(k)-1(c)(3), by legal description, street address or a distinguishable name; for a DST that means the trust's name and the property address, with the dollar amount or percentage you intend to buy. Qualified intermediaries commonly suggest a DST as a backup on the list in case a primary property falls through.

Naming six trusts on a $1 million sale therefore depends on the 200% rule, which turns on how your intermediary values a fractional interest, so settle the wording with the intermediary before day 45; the deadline rules and what a qualified intermediary does are on their own pages.

Debt replacement decides the split more often than minimums do

Since federal tax law treats you as holding your fraction of a property together with its loan, your share of a trust's mortgage counts toward the debt you must replace. A trust at 50% loan-to-value doubles your equity into value; a debt-free trust replaces no debt at all.

The practical sequence is to size the leveraged trusts first, until the relinquished loan is covered, then place the remaining equity in any trust that fits. Owners with a large loan relative to equity may need a cash-out DST or a zero-cash-flow trust, which exist for exactly that arithmetic.

Residual cash and odd amounts: placing the last few thousand dollars

Form D reports a floor rather than a unit size, and one 2026 filing lists a $108,257 minimum, which points to dollar-denominated subscriptions; still, confirm with the sponsor that $137,250 is acceptable once it clears the floor. The awkward case is a residual below every available minimum.

Three ways to handle it: choose one trust with a $25,000 or $50,000 floor for the tail, accept a small taxable boot on the residual, or fold the residual into a larger subscription in a trust already on your list. The intermediary, not you, must fund each subscription, so tell it early how many closings to expect within the 180 days.

Intermediary fees drawn from the exchange account also shrink the balance, so fix each subscription amount only after asking how those fees will be taken.

Past five or six trusts, each extra slice costs more than it protects

Every trust brings its own subscription package, accreditation verification, annual grantor statement, possible nonresident state return and exit date, while the sales commission, 4.9% to 10.2% of the offering in the filings above, is the same percentage on each slice. Multi-state tax issues and DST fees and loads show the cost side.

Sponsors and broker-dealers process a $50,000 ticket with the same paperwork as a $500,000 one, which is why floors exist at all. Check the split, the boot and the debt figures with your CPA or attorney before you sign identification forms.

Breakwater Exchange has spent over 20 years placing more than a billion dollars of DST equity with vetted national sponsors, and we can tell you which open offerings accept your ticket size and how many closings your exchange can realistically carry.