DSTs are Regulation D private placements, open to accredited investors only: $1M+ net worth excluding your primary residence, or $200K income ($300K joint) in each of the last two years. Typical minimums run around $100K for 1031 exchange investors and $25K–$50K for cash investors. Whether anyone actually verifies depends on the offering type — 506(b) takes your word with a questionnaire; 506(c) demands documentation. The equity in the property you're selling usually gets exchangers over the net-worth line.
DST interests are securities — private placements sold under SEC Regulation D, exempt from public registration precisely because they're restricted to investors the rules presume can absorb risk and evaluate deals without a public prospectus. That presumption is the accredited investor standard, and it's not a formality: sponsors legally cannot sell to you without it.
Individuals qualify by meeting either test: Net worth over $1 million, excluding your primary residence (assets minus liabilities; the house doesn't count, but rental properties, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts, and — critically for exchangers — the equity in the investment property you're selling all do). Or income above $200,000 ($300,000 with a spouse or partner) in each of the two most recent years, with a reasonable expectation of the same this year. Certain licenses (Series 7, 65, 82) also qualify, along with various entity tests for trusts and LLCs.
The practical reality for this site's readers: if you're 1031-exchanging a property with several hundred thousand in equity, that equity alone typically clears the net-worth bar. Most exchangers are accredited and don't know the term yet.
Two flavors of Reg D offering, one meaningful difference. Rule 506(b) offerings can't be publicly advertised and accept self-certification — a questionnaire where you attest to your status. Rule 506(c) offerings can advertise publicly (that DST ad that found you online) but must take reasonable steps to verify: tax returns, bank and brokerage statements, or a letter from your CPA, attorney, or advisor confirming status. If a sponsor asks for documentation, that's not intrusiveness — it's the law attached to how they marketed the deal.
Do not round yourself up. Self-certifying accreditation you don't have doesn't unlock a clever loophole — it puts false statements in a securities transaction with your signature on them, and it strips you of protections the rules assume you didn't need. If you're borderline, the honest conversation with a CPA about how net worth is actually computed (spoiler: more things count than people expect) resolves most cases legitimately.
Typical current-market minimums: around $100,000 for 1031 exchange investors, and often $25,000–$50,000 for cash (non-exchange) investors in the same trusts. Some sponsors set exchange minimums lower or higher by deal. Why the two tiers? Exchange investments carry more administrative overhead (QI coordination, closing mechanics, debt matching), so sponsors set a floor where the economics work. Practical implication: DSTs can absorb oddly-sized exchange remainders — a $137,400 leftover after your primary purchase has a home — which is exactly the boot-elimination use case they're built for.
Clearing the accreditation bar is the floor, not the analysis. The questions that matter more: is the DST allocation small enough relative to your net worth that a total loss is survivable? Do you have liquidity outside the DST for the 5–10 year hold? And are you diversifying across sponsors and asset classes rather than concentrating in one trust because its brochure was prettiest? The honest DST guide and Fee Forensics are the next reads before any minimum check gets written.
Yes — the $300,000 joint income test exists exactly for this. Joint net worth also counts toward the $1M test.
Yes, retirement accounts count as assets for the net-worth calculation, even though you wouldn't invest them through a 1031.
Not through Reg D DSTs. Public non-traded and traded REITs offer passive real estate without accreditation — different structure, different liquidity, no 1031 eligibility. Anyone offering a non-accredited path into a private DST is describing a securities violation.
A free, no-obligation introduction to a vetted 1031 or DST partner — with our referral relationship disclosed in writing. On the 45-day clock? Same-day attention.